I'm writing this post from my hostel in Kashgar, the westernmost-city in China. It's an oasis of desert, much of which I traveled by train or plane over the last two days. My hostel is in the former Russian Consulate building. It's only about 84 degrees, but the lack of cloud cover and pollution (thankfully) is letting the unchecked rays of sun crush my forehead like a just-emptied wok of noodles.

Xinjiang, the province throughtout which I will travel for the next week, is part of China for strategic rather than cultural reasons. The language here, Uyghur, is a Turkic language that is written in Arabic, and the people have large eyes -- some even blue or green -- and skin darkened by that heat.

My (relatively) big eyes and tanned skin lead some people in China to ask me "Ni shi xinjiangren ma?" (Are you a Xinjiang person?) in China. But here I receive just as many stares as I do in Hunan. A crowd of at least three forms when I buy food or other commodities. I do most of my bargaining in broken English now, as many Uyghurs don't speak Mandarin. Here, trying to bite someone's head off doesn't get you a good deal -- you have to be nice. A change for me, these days.

The Uyghurs are Muslim, and most of the women in Kashgar cover their heads. Dressing modestly -- an ankle-length skirt and long-sleeved blouse -- didn't stop people from noticing my waiguoren essence.

I'll be here until the 23rd, when I go to Sichuan province. I'm there for a week and then I will return to the States on Aug. 1!

Some brief notes on my family's two weeks in China:

-- We spent three days in Beijing, where we saw the Great Wall, Forbidden City, etc. We had a private tour guide, which was nice, but I didn't think my family was really capturing the essence of China by being shuttled around in a van.

-- Then we took an overnight train to Xi'an, and saw the Terracotta Warriors, Muslim Quarter, etc. Someone in my family asked to buy a copy of the Chinglish menu at our restaurant, and the waiter agreed to give it to us for about 60 kuai before the manager came over and broke up our discussion.

-- We then went to Chongqing and took a cruise down the Yangtze through the Three Gorges, but not before a fiasco occured that I don't really have the energy to write about. It involved all the other passengers and the Chongqing travel ministry.

-- The Yangtze resembles the chocolate river from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

-- Someone in my family actually copy-edited the Chinglish bar menu on the cruise. With a pen. And no, it wasn't me! (Although I've been tempted.)

-- Then we went to Zhengzhou, abour 6 hrs south of Beijing, where we saw the Shaolin Temple. At the bus station to the temple they tried to stop us from getting on the bus, and it involved a five-minute screaming match in English/Chinese and intervention from the station staff before we could get on.

Now that my family had finally seen a little bit of what I go through on a daily basis, I think they were a little relieved to get back to the States. Maybe if I have time, I'll write more about our fascinating travels. I don't thinkthat will be happening soon, however...