Looking for the night market? Just follow your nose

The night market. [Wang Zhuangfei / China Daily]

Apart from barbecuing eggs, Hotan locals take pride in their barbecued "lamb's eggs", in reality lamb's testicles. Every barbecue stall has the ingredient on the menu. "They've got to be fresh ones," says Memetjon Abliz, 43. He sells at least 30 testicles a night, he says, adding: "It's good for men."

Wang Zhuangfei, a photographer who accompanied me to Hotan, says of a lamb's egg he ate: "It is very meaty but softer than lamb's meat and it tastes great." He regret having only had one, he says.

After having a real egg as a starter and the lamb's egg as a main course, it is time for a summer dessert.

"Come, my friend, and try the perfect summer dessert," Rozgul Abulat, 20, says with a broad smile. He stands beside a big chunk of ice half her size. I notice something familiar in front of the ice, zongzi, or rice-dumplings wrapped in reed leaves, which people normally have during the Dragon Boat Festival celebrated by Han Chinese. People in Hotan love them, eating them almost daily, Rozgul says.

"We also love moon cakes and have them every day as snacks."

Wasting no time she begins to prepare her signature dish. She uses a small pickaxe to scrape ice chips off the big ice chunk cut from the frozen river in winter. Then she puts the ice chips into a bowl and mixes them with yogurt and sugar syrup. Finally, she unwraps a plain zongzi and dumps it into the bowl. It is ready to serve, and proves to live up to Rozgul's sales pitch.

Xinjiang produces the best and sweetest fruits in China because of the long daylight hours and the vast temperature differences between day and night. You can buy slices of melons at the night market and decide which one you like best.

Akbar Azmet's melons were cooled in icy water at the back of his tractor. For him the heat wave is a godsend because the hotter it is the more melons he sells. After years of practice he can slice every piece of melon into almost exactly the same size.

As people just cannot resist a slice of chilled watermelon in the hot summer night, the 45-year-old has to keep on slicing watermelons to satisfy his customers waiting in line. After a customer finishes the first piece, Azmet puts another slice into his or her hand and says: "Come on. You know you want another piece."

When you are in Hotan there are so many interesting things to watch out for, one of them being your weight.