博乐 (Bole) City

A look at some numbers...
Xinjiang is the biggest administrative division in China, covering 1,664,897 km², or 17.23% of China's land area. 
Its population stands at 21.8 million, with a population density of  13/km².
Singapore:
Land area - 694 km². 
Population -  5.18 million, with a population density of 7,315/km².


^{That makes Xinjiang about 2400 times as big as Singapore, but we have a population density 560 times that of Xinjiang!}




Daan's big brother picked us up from Alatwa Pass Railway Station.
When we arrived, Daan pointed him out to me and said "that's big brother".
Out of respect, Daan often refers to people older than him, but in the same generation, as “哥” （older brother) or "姐" (older sister).
I called him big brother too, thinking he was one of Daan's good friends. It was only after we got into the car that I realised that was Daan's REAL older brother! Ha!

Big brother brought us to Alatwa Pass first, then to Bole City.
Bole (博乐 Bólè) or Bortala is a county-level city in Xinjiang. 

Bortala means "brown grasslands/steppe" in Mongolian.
It covers an area of 7517 km² and the total population is 403,700 (2003).

Lunch at a Halal (清真）restaurant. There's big brother in the striped shirt. 

杂烩汤 （zahuitang, don't know how to translate it to English!) is a yummy clear soup with rice noodles, mutton and meatballs. It's eaten with flat bread.

One of the bigger shopping centres in Bole. We came here again 2 weeks later to buy things for our Chinese wedding.

After lunch, we were off to meet the rest of Daan's family!