Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, has the distinction of being the most landlocked city on the planet. Positioned 1,600 miles from the nearest coastline, this distinction has earned Urumqi a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. In an effort to attract more Chinese tourists, the government of China has … Continue reading
Pressed up against the border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Kashgar – also known as Kashi – is the westernmost city in China. Frequently described as the best-preserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found in Central Asia, it is hard not to like Kashgar: We’ve already covered the “Kashgar Night Market” and so … Continue reading
During our exploration of Kashgar we came across this blind musician testing out these instruments – known as the dutar – inside a shop: Here is a video of him playing for us after he was advised of our presence: Rest assured, The Velvet Rocket contributed to his purchase of a new dutar. ***** Continue reading
For most of you, this will be the second photo of the day (POTD) on the same day. Such actions may seem to violate the natural order of things, but The Velvet Rocket is warming up for the theme of the next few posts and we don’t want to lose our momentum… Long a site … Continue reading
I’m reading this book right now and I’ll be getting into a fair amount of detail on the people of this region of the world in upcoming posts. So, what better time to publish this photo of the day? The below is a Mongolian eagle hunter in the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia: ***** Continue reading
I went to the dentist last week for a routine cleaning. Settling into the dental chair, the contrast between what I saw around me in Dr. Carver’s office and what The Velvet Rocket staff observed in a North Korean dental office during our recent visit there, prompted me to decide that I would not wish … Continue reading
Yeats wrote The Second Coming in 1919 at the end of World War I. The poem uses Christian imagery, but it is about the Europe that existed at the end of World War I and what was to follow rather than about religion… It is just as apt in describing Syria or other such bloody … Continue reading
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