Hotan - a city of Jade

Hotan is located on the Southern Silk Road just below the Taklamakan desert and is famous of many things (like silk production) but mainly because of Jade (Nephrite Jade)....I went there by an early morning bus which should have last about 8 hours but mine last 11 hours due to number of security and medical check points. Actually, beside I had to get off the bus and show my passport 7 times I was also "shot" by a temperature gun 4 times....Are you aware of any occurence of bird or swine flu in Xinjiang at the time or was is just a nice gift to locals from the government??

I wanted to visit a museum in Hotan but it was closed one day and when I asked if it would be opened tomorrow (I know this important word  in Chinesse) they told me it would be closed too. In fact, I was passing by the museum the very next day and surprisingly it was openned. The price I had to pay to enter the museum was to show my passport and sign a piece of official paper...As someone gave me an advice before: "In Xinjiang, don't put your passport too deep"...

I also looked for Hotan Jade in the nearby river but apart from nicely coloured stones I found nothing....:-)