Turpan Travel Tips

 
Climate and Weather

The unique local climate in Turpan endows the city with the most intense heat in the summer months. When visiting this area, bear in mind that this is the hottest city in all of China and one of the hottest in the world! The highest temperature recorded here was 49.6 degrees Celsius. Make sure you come prepared if you visit during the summer months. Always carry plenty of drinking water, take some very strong sunblock and a good hat or cap.

The grape harvest season, namely July, August and September, is the best time for tourists to visit. Due to unique geographical conditions, the city enjoys long hours of sunshine and scarce rain. The average temperature between June and August is 30 degrees C. In a year, there may be a 5-month period of sustained heat above 35 degrees C. The temperature of the ground surface can reach 75 or even 82.3 degrees.

Other Odds and Ends

Phone Dialing Code: 0995
Postcode: 838000
Emergency Numbers:
Fire: 119
Police: 110
Ambulance: 120
Weather Forecast: 121
Consumers' Complaint: 12315
Post-Tele Communication Office: 39, Lancheng Road TEL:0995-8523010
Medical Emergency: 23, Luzhou Road TEL:0995-8522724

Money
In China, Renminbi is the only currency in circulation. Foreigners may go to the Bank of China to exchange the money from foreign one into Renminbi at the daily rate. Some big hotels also provide such service. Bank of China majors the foreign currency business such as management of central foreign currency; revenue and expenditure of the foreign currency, deposit, credit and relative international selling accounts etc.
Bank of China has branches in every prefectures and cities, and local branches along the major street. If you are in Turpan, if you want change $ cashes, please contact them as the following.
Address: 18, Lancheng Road
TEL: 0995-8523067

Important Notes:
1. Do not shake water off your wet hands in public.
2. Do not irritate Muslims by eating pork and by speaking about pigs in their presence.
3. Respect the customs and habits of ethnic minorities.
4. Protect yourselves against the elements in all seasons. Be careful about your drinking water. Boil it first.
5. You will come upon spectacular scenery; so do bring your photographic equipment along.
6. Avoid drinking hot tea after eating fruits to avoid diarrhea.
7. Though the 'clock time' in Xinjiang is just the same as the rest of China, in fact there is a two-hour difference in longitude between Turpan and Beijing. For this reason the daily working hours are: 10:00 - 14:00, 15:30 - 19:30
While in Turpan, you should modify you rest and dining times to be two hours later than if you were in a city in Middle China, otherwise you might feel out of step with local life. But don't forget that bus, train and flights all adopt Beijing Time. If you booked a flight to arrive or depart Urumqi at around 08:00, then you may find it is quite dark at that time. Please keep this in mind when making reservations.  

Local Festivals and Folk Custom

The most important local festivals are the annual Corban Festival and Lesser Bairam. According to the Islamic calendar Corban Festival falls on December 10th and Lesser Bairam is 70 days before of Corban Festival. Having a strong ethnic flavor, Guniang Zhui (a kind of funny way to express love between young men and women) and Diaoyang (a traditional sport of the local minority) are very interesting tourist activities at that time. If you are lucky enough, you can appreciate such amusing movements.

Grape Festival 
The Grape Festival in Turpan was firstly held to commemorate the 2100th anniversary of the Silk Road. The Silk Road stretches 4000 km in China and 2000km in Xinjiang territory, with south, middle and north 3 routes crossing the area. Turpan is well known as a strategic key point at the middle route, since Han Dynasty Turpan has been one of the political, economical and cultural centers in Xinjiang. In the procession of reform and open to outside world, Turpan gets to know the world. So does the world get to know Turpan. The grape festival was firstly held in August 1990. The festival takes tour, trade, and Culture as a whole. It chooses Solidarity, Friendship, Cooperation Development as the motif, to promote Silk Rood spirit to making most possible friends, to widening exchange, to enhancing the fame of Turpan, and to speeding up economic development in Chinese west part.

The Grape festival is arranged before "Urumqi Bordering Trade Fair" in the purpose of" culture roles as a platform for economy to act on" Therefore it brings more and more profit each year.
Turpan is well situated with convenient communication and unique surroundings. It's known as "fire land" due to the heat in summer. It's also reputed for its grapes, melons, historic relics, ruins and so on. During the Festival, various cultural activities will be held such as special evening party, singing and dancing show, summer gathering, wine tasting party, special lauds local dishes street, science and technological and shopping street, fruits street are available. It will be more exciting to add one or two days around Turpan. Thus every year, more and more friends are interested in the festival for sightseeing or trading purpose, which has brought increasingly high profit so far as social and economic benefit is concerned.

Nadame Fair
Nadame is a traditional center of activities. It has a bright feature and is a regional activity. Nadame means "entertainment" in Mongolian. It expresses the happy feeling of a bumper harvest, and has a long history. Initial, it came from Mongolia, offering a sacrifice to hill and aobao. Then, t is held on July 13th every year. It includes not only horse-racing, wrestling, sheep-snatching, girl-chasing, jangler playing and singing but also camel race, horse-shooting skill, commodity displaying and cultural communication etc. It holds you get some idea of the warm and men as well as the style and features of the frontier grass land and the natural beauty of lakes and mountains. In 1992, the Nadame gathering was classified as a friendly and enjoyable sightseeing spot in China. Grass gathering-nadame shows the glamour of the grassland scene as well as folk custom. Traveling souvenir: heads, badges, clothing and ornaments of the Mongolian, kazak and Uygur, "nadame" wine, caps, carpets and hanging carpets of the kazaks. Local food: "naren" is the Mongolian main meal. "Hands catch meat" is the Kazak main meal. "Roast mutton " is the Uygur, "drawing noodle", "mixed stew" are the Hui main meals.