Dancing Uygurs and Raisins

Before lunch we went to a Uygur (wee-gur) household. Uygurs are the Chinese Muslim minority population who make up most of the population of Xin Jiang. Their physical appearance is a cross between every different kind of people in Asia; Chinese, Turkish, Mongol, etc. They served us watermelon and grapes, danced for us, and then told us that we all had to dance, and they would be offended if we came to their house and did not. So we all walked/skipped/danced in a circle for a little bit. After a while, the circle stopped, and the Uygurs danced in the middle of the circle for us. Then my worst fears were confirmed, and they began picking people out of the crowd to dance in the circle with them. Of course I got picked; I always get picked. I danced with the Uygur woman for a little bit, following the man’s demonstration as he did the moves one by one. Depending on what he made me do, I may or may not currently be married to the woman… each move had some sort of meaning, but I’m not sure exactly what they were.

Once I had been sufficiently embarrassed, the dancing ended. They brought out the raisins (a regional specialty), and told us about each different variety. They were all very good, and each supposedly have their own medicinal properties; a raisin for the women to boost their yin energy, a different one for the men to boost their yang energy, and so on. After letting us sample them at will and get sufficiently addicted, they kindly let us buy bags of the raisins to take with us.

We went to several more tourist spots in the afternoon, but nothing of much note. All had other tour buses and gift shops, and most sold raisins. In the evening, another bus ride through the desert to the hotel in Urumqi.