After living in London, the ever-shining sun is something that still thrills me every morning. However, it isn't much to people here, the city is after all an oasis. I also have yet to experience the minus 30 Celsius, six-month winter. Perhaps my child-like love might wane.

Not long after the teachers' meeting (the one where I had to visualize corpses to keep from laughing hysterically at Vivian’s throaty warbling) I visited Turpan, a small desert city three hours away from Urumqi. To get there you must drive through a mountain pass that divides the Tien Shan—the Heavenly Mountains.

“Perhaps it's time I embraced singing and song?”

The Tien Shan rise to 5,000 meters and this pass forms the only sea-level route from the north to the south of the province. The result is a funnel from the vast Juggar Basin down the mountains on either side, through the pass and into the desert. This is officially the windiest place on earth as the tall mountain ranges force any current from the North into the pass. Understandably the world’s largest wind farm also sits right at this point.

Turpan was fine, incredibly hot—over 40 Celsius but desert dry, and filled with grape terraces; they produce both raisin and wine here.

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