What’s On: Wedding in the Uygur style, mashlap (lively and humorous folk dance), nazkum (witty art performance), Koco-style songs and dances, Hami-melon competition, trade negotiations, tour of the Street of Grapes and Melons, and camel caravans reminiscent of the Silk Road more than 2,000 years ago.

The Grape Festival is not just an ode to Turpan’s most important agricultural product, but a chance to celebrate the local way of life. Expect plenty of cultural treats in this remote corner of China.

Turpan is a Silk Road settlement, populated by Muslim Uigur people, forgotten by China and loved by the travellers who make it there. This oasis town in Eastern Xinjiang is picturesquely covered in vine trellises, shading the friendly locals from some of the fiercest heat in China. Almost every household has a hand in the grape business and the markets are full of sweet dried raisins. It’s a relaxing place where donkey carts still outnumber cars, but it livens up in April each year.Local tours can help you to retrace Marco Polo’s footsteps, and desert landscapes once traversed by Silk Road caravans still run riot with the imagination. The history of the region recalls names like Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun and even Alexander the Great. Nearby are several ruined cities and Buddhist caves.The real interest, though, is the Uigur people themselves and how they have managed to retain their identity under Communist China. Uigur food is more Central Asian than Chinese, reflecting the harsh surroundings, and the language is actually a dialect of Turkish. Like the Tibetans, but without the high profile, the Uigurs are not so happy being welcomed ‘back to the motherland’.