Music leads the way part two: Kuqa and Korla

There is a story about this song, which Wang Luobin also collected when he adapted this humorous music from a Uygur tradition.

Around harvest time, the Ugyur farmers would gather together to have some fun. And as one of the diversions an old man would dress himself like a woman with a handkerchief covering his face. At the end of this little game dance, the veil would be whipped off and the old man revealed, much to the mirth of the crowd around. And the background music would be the famous "Lift Your Veil". Wang Luobin adapted it into Mandarin and turned it into a much-loved favorite with the rest of the country.

The ride on the donkey cart is actually pretty comfortable and relaxing. Aliya took me to a nice Uygur courtyard in Kuqa, to her Uncle Yasef's home. The little garden is filled with flowers and plants that thrive in the dry heat of Xinjiang.

The Uygur people are hugely welcoming to guests. The grape arbor provides blissful shelter from the relentless sun, and to sit here in such a comfortable courtyard and enjoy a moment of cool breeze under the grapevine is a real treat in itself. Even if you were a stranger, they would welcome you with whole-hearted hospitality, offering all they have - from tea to fresh fruits to dry fruits to home made yogurt torefresh you.

Of all these foods, Changying's favorite is the Yogurt. It's delicious and incredibly sour. So she add lots of sugar.

Another favorite Uygur dish is what they call La Tiaozi. Basically it's noodles with a special kind of carefully prepared sauce. The sauce is a scrambled mixture of beef and vegetables such as tomato, beans, eggplant, and green peppers. The process of flinging the noodle dough around guarantees a texture that is both resilient and soft After dinner, Aliya gave me an original version of Lift Your Veil in its original Uygur language. It's slightly different from the Wang Luobin version, but if you listen carefully the merry essence and humor of the song remains the same.