Sweet Fireland's Intoxicating Journey: A Complete Self-Guided Travel Guide to Turpan, Xinjiang

Author: Tie Mei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This is currently the only comprehensive self-guided travel manual in China about Xinjiang, encompassing all the historically renowned travel routes and attractions in the region since ancient times. With it, your understanding of this vast land will be as familiar and in-depth as someone who has lived there for many years. These places have been visited and explored multiple times by the author of this series, making the information more detailed, complete, and trustworthy. The text is filled with humanistic care, emotional concern, and informational support for self-guided travelers. For easy use and reference, each book includes detailed travel route diagrams.
During the Tang Dynasty, wine had a significant influence in the inland regions. The grape cultivation techniques and winemaking methods learned from Gaochang likely persisted for a long period in the Tang era, leading to the frequent appearance of wine in many Tang poems. Wang Han's famous poem "Cool State Verse" includes the well-known lines: "Beautiful grapes, fine wine, night-light cups; ready to drink, pipa calls from horseback." Liu Yuxi also wrote poems praising wine, saying, "I am originally from Jin, but I grow these like jade; fermented into fine wine, I drink all day without enough." Poets like Bai Juyi and Li Bai also composed verses celebrating grape wine. At that time, the Hu people opened taverns in Chang'an to sell wine from the Western Regions. This is reflected in the poem: "Trampled flowers, no place to go; laughing, I enter the Hu girl's tavern."
The wine culture and drinking customs of Turpan are equally ancient. Ancient texts record that the people of Turpan "enjoy drinking and have large capacities." Their traditional winemaking methods are still used in the folk today. The wine brewed by the people of Turpan using traditional methods is called "Museli." It is a popular beverage among the Uyghurs and is regarded as nectar. Its production method is also quite unique. This drink is entirely made from fresh grapes, resulting in a juice similar to wine. After picking the fresh grapes, they are placed on a clean board, spread out, and beaten with cleaned desert locust leaves (leaves are removed, leaving only the thorns). The grapes are beaten so that the skins and seeds remain on the board, while the juice flows into a basin. Then, it is filtered with cloth and poured into a pot for slow simmering. Ten kilograms of grape juice is added to twenty kilograms of water and slowly simmered over low heat to reduce it to ten kilograms of juice. After simmering, it is poured into a clean jar, covered, and sealed, placed in a sunny spot to ferment. It takes about 40 days to complete fermentation. During fermentation, it produces a bubbling sound like boiling water, and when it becomes completely quiet, it indicates that the brewing is finished.