Urumchi

Outside the famous "mummy" museum in Urumchi with Jane A ... mummies were sort of gruesome but interesting looking. They had tatoos on their faces and were "European". The building behind the sign is a new facility being built; the old museum is very sad in the poor way things are displayed.

The visit to the musuem was after an interesting morning with the guide who had a hard time figuring out that if we were to eat breakfast, we had to change money first. Foreigners are quite controlled and only allowed to change money at the main Bank of China. We had bread with meat in it, and noodle soup for breakfast. It was the first time the Urbans had used chopsticks!

As we were eating breakfast, we watched mandatory exercises outside by employees of a nearby bank in their work clothes -- they weren't too enthusiastic! The roads were nice: there were service roads for bicylists, pedistrians, and carts, keeping the much slower traffic away from the main road. The signs on stores and buildings seem huge to us as I imagine they have to fit a lot of "characters" in on each sign.