Longing For Desert

People in Hong Kong have short memories. Last week it rained a bit. I think it started Monday. By Tuesday it was all “oh, I’m so SICK of this RAIN! Will it EVER stop?”

Interestingly, it seems to be people who were born in freezing, cloudy, rainy and snowy countries that complain the loudest, and soonest, about rain, heat, pretty much any weather. One would think they (like me) loved heat but no; as soon as the temperature goes above 25 degrees, it's moan moan, whinge whinge again.

"It's so hot, I can't stand it!" adding, as if they were the first people ever to notice this: "Actually, it's not the heat you see, it's the humidity".

Me, I'm happy as long as it doesn't snow.

Still, when it’s raining torrentially and dog walking isn’t as much of a joy as it normally is, my thoughts go to Xinjiang.

Talk about "it's the humidity" - in Xinjiang the humidity must be MINUS 20%. Temperatures up to 40 degrees are as nothing as the desert winds cool your skin, sucking every milli-droplet of moisture out of it. The people there look 20 years older than they really are, not unlike the desiccated, red-haired mummy in Urumqi's Museum of Natural History bearing the proud inscription: "This is a corpse from 3,000 years from now".

Huge, menacing black clouds build up at night and you think there will be some relief from the heat, but all that happens is a dust storm.

Evening meals at outside restaurants are like sitting inside a hair dryer going at full blast and in Tulufan (Turpan) only mad dogs and I go out in the midday sun. But even I must carry an umbrella for protection against the brutal rays.

Xinjiang is of course in Central Asia and I used to criticise China for invading it, I mean "taking it back" in 1949, but now I'm glad it's part of the motherland so that I can go there with impunity and still have Chinese standards (proper Sichuan food).

Only four or five days away by train, it never rains and you never sweat so you only have to shower once a day. If that. You can wear your shirt two days in a row. Paradise! And the melons and grapes are out of this world wonderful. August is the fruit season in Xinjiang. I must go there.

落雨 (lok yu – fall rain)
雲 (wan – cloud)
好濕 （hou sap – well humid[wet])
新疆 (San Geung – New Frontier [Xinjiang])
哈密瓜 (Ha Mat Gwa – Hami melon)