Urumqi

Capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and a rising industrial city. Major attractions: Hongshan, Xinjiang Museum, and Shuimugou Hot Springs. Urumqi stands out as a most distinct Chinese city with a folkloric look and burgeoning modern industry. Baiyang Gully south of the city is a scenic Kazakh pastoral farm. Museum of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous Region at Xibei Road has a collection of more than 50,000 cultural relics with distinct ethnic features.

Kizil Grottoes

Kizil, 70 km from Kuqa County, is the venue of one of China's four grottoes which was built earlier than Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang. The 10,000 square metres of murals kept in the 236 caves that are still there, are of high value for artists and researchers alike.

Tianchi Lake

Sprawling on the waist of Mount Bogda of Tianshan Mountains and 100 km east of Urumqi,Tianchi runs 4.9 square km wide and 90 metres deep, a natural lake fed by thawing snow runoffs. Snow-mantled peaks and sky-soaring dragon-spruce, among other things, define Tianchi Lake as a scenic place with prismatic splendour.

Kaxgar

A well-known tourist city in west Xinjiang, Kaxgar is the venue of the tomb of Abac Hoja (Fragrant Lady), a massive, elegant building created in 1640 in a typical Islamic style, and Atigar, China's largest Islamic mosque dating back to more than 500 years ago.

Kanas Lake

The Kanas in Altay Mountain, north Xinjiang, is a lake which looks mysterious and elegant with the peaks around it reflected bewitchingly in its pellucid water. Inhabiting the place are Mongol nomads who have adhered to their incomparable habits and customs.

Turpan

Hot is summer in this major tourist city of Xianjiang, situated in Turpan Basin, the lowest point on the mainland of China. The local people have developed karez, an irrigation system composed of wells connected by underground channels, to counter the heat and drought of the place. at the foot of the Flaming Mountain east of Turpan lies and Grape Gully (nickname: Green Pearl City"), an oasis where the scorching sun is shut off by luxuriant tree foliages and grapevine trellises that cover 220 hectares and are crisscrossed by irrigation ditches. No place in China is hotter in summer than the Flaming Mountain in Turpan, a mountain made famous by the classical Chinese mythological novel, Journey to the West. Xinjiang's largest ancient pagoda, Dorbiljin (Emin) Pagoda, (also called Sugong Pagoda) stands 2 km east of downtown Turpan. To the east lies Gaochang, which until the early Ming was a thriving town on the Silk Road; today it has been reduced to a 2 million-square-metre stretch of broken walls and deserted fields. The inexorable pace of history is even more keenly felt at Jiaohe, another ancient city that was deserted during the early Ming, leaving a pile of ruins west of Turpan.

Silk Road Tour

During the Han and Tang dynasties, silk products and other goods were shipped to the capital city of Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), where the Silk Road started, and then they were transported by a constant flow of foreign caravans along Hexi Corridor to Europe by way of Xianjiang, where three routes were divided on the Silk Road. A journey down the Silk Road has thus become a most enchanting tourist program in Xinjiang.

Golden Travel Route

Taklimakan in Tarim Basin, south Xinjiang, is the world's second largest desert which used to be dubbed "Death Sea". A 522-km-long highway has been paved across it from south to north, turning the "Death Sea" into a tourist hot cake. A "golden travel route" mapped out by local tourist authorities runs from Urumqi to Kaxgar by way of Turpa, Korla, Kuqa, Niya, and Hotan, and brings visitors on an itinerary of discovery of landscape, places of historical interest, and local customs and habits.

Bayanbulak Grassland

Some 400 km from Urumqi lies the vastest and most beautiful grassland of Xinjiang-Bayanbulak,which formerly belonged to Hejin County of Bayangol Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. The charms of Bayanbulak are accentuated by the Swan Lake in its heart, a mating and incubating place for large flocks swans.

Special-Purpose Tours

Quite a few special tour programs are available in Xinjing, including camel-riding exploration of the deserts; climbing some of the world's highest mountains; riding a horse and being a guest of Uygur, Kazakh, Mongol and other ethnic families; tours of discovery of the Silk Road or some kingdoms that have been consigned to history in the West Territory. For details, contact any of the travel services in Xinjiang.