First glimpses of the sunflowers

If you've ever wondered why the name of this blog is "Sunflower Beams"...
When I first started this blog, I was looking forward to seeing and sharing photos of the huge sunflower fields in Xinjiang.

We picked an almost ripe sunflower and ate the raw seeds. The seeds are sweet! These sunflowers were  random ones growing in the corn field, not for harvesting, so we plucked them before they were cut down by the havesting machine. 

Pretty! So much bigger than the tiny ones we get from the florist.

Trying different effects using the camera.

 Contrary to popular belief, sunflowers do not track the sun's movement throughout the day! They actually face east. So if you get lost while driving, you can look at the sunflowers to reset your bearings.

Proof: This photo was taken at about 8pm with the sun setting in the west. Notice the sun is shining on the right side of my face, and all the sunflowers in the background are facing away from the sun. The flower in my hand? I twisted it around to face the camera :)

The first of the wedding guests!

Daan's 大伯 (father's oldest brother, pronounced da4 bai1 by the family) and 大妈 (father's oldest brother's wife) travelled from Gansu to Xinjiang to attend our wedding.
We went to pick them up from the train station.

A food stall near the train station. They sell "sheep's head, sheep's stomach, sheep's hooves. You can see the sheep's stomach on the tray on the left.  

At the train station

There's 大伯 in the middle.

大妈 over on the left. We were having corn and beans (home grown) as an afternoon snack. The corn in Xinjiang is really substantial and not sweet at all, not like the types we eat in Singapore and Malaysia.

Notice Daan is not in any of the pictures. He does NOT like to eat corn. His family was poor when he was young, so they did not always have wheat noodles/buns to eat. Daan ate a lot of home-grown corn, so if given a choice now, he doesn't eat corn.

A taste of Mongolia

There are many ethnic mongolians in the northern part of Xinjiang.
We visited a Genghis Khan monument in 温泉 (Wenquan, meaning hotspring) County. 

Leading a very "large" army to war

Attack!

Fish farm and wheat field in 温泉县 (Hotspring County)

Hello! I'm back to share about Xinjiang!

Big brother brought us to a fish farm in 温泉县 (Hotspring County).
There, they rear 冷水鱼 (cold water fish). I hear such fish are rather tough (when you eat them).
The water is ice-melt from the mountains. 

Feeding the fish. They jump out of the water as we sprinkle the feed! Very very fast, couldn't snap a photo.

Mountains and blue skies in the background

This photo was taken just outside the fish farm. Wild horses grazing in the grassland. On the train ride to Xinjiang, I saw wild camels too!

One of the many many wheat fields.

In Xinjiang, wheat is known as 麦子

Close-up look of the wheat. Not white to harvest yet.