This is another ancient village which is more than 1000 years old, 70 kilometres to the east of Turpan and located in a lush gully carved into the Flaming Mountains, at the foot of the Tuyugou Thousand-Buddha Grottoes. The village was fully opened to visitors only three years ago. According to our local guide, the village is considered to be one of the seven holiest Muslim sites in the world, but I can’t find any information on this from the Web and am not sure about the validity of the claim. Accordingly to local Muslim legend, one must worship in Tuyugou first before setting out for the pilgrim to Mecca, hence the place is also called “China’s Mecca”. Today, there are still several hundred families staying in this traditional Uyghur village.