Xinjiang Travel Guide: Mid-Autumn Golden Autumn 7-Day Tour of Northern Xinjiang
Xinjiang Tourism Consultation: (Same) 0991-8585456
Xinjiang, located in the southwestern border of the country, has always been a relatively mysterious place. Beautiful Xinjiang girls, super sweet Xinjiang fruits, and vast deserts are pretty much all the impressions of Xinjiang.
But in fact, Xinjiang is a remarkable place. It is one of China’s five ethnic minority autonomous regions, occupying one-sixth of China’s total land area. Historically, it was an important passage on the ancient Silk Road and is now a necessary route for the second "Eurasia Land Bridge", with a very important strategic location.
Xinjiang has 56 types of tourism resources nationwide, accounting for 83% of the country’s total. There are more than 1,100 scenic spots in Xinjiang, ranking first in the country. The world’s second-highest peak and China’s lowest-lying area are both located here. So, what places in Xinjiang are absolutely not to be missed? A comprehensive overview of Xinjiang, let’s begin:
Jiangbulake – Super Beautiful Grassland
Jiangbulake, meaning "source of holy water" in Kazakh, boasts magnificent natural scenery due to its unique geographical location. The distant mountains and nearby waters complement each other, the forest and snow-capped peaks blend together, and the green waves and flower sea are like a tide, presenting a holy appearance.
Located in Banshiegou Town, Qitai County, Xinjiang, Jiangbulake is one of the important scenic spots on the ancient Silk Road North Route. It consists of five areas and eighteen scenic spots, including the Tianshan Strange Slope, ten thousand mu of wheat fields, the Ancient Shule City, wooden footpaths, and Black Lake. It attracts the attention of numerous tourists with its beautiful and enchanting flower sea, the clear and quiet Black Lagoon, the world’s most unique Tianshan Strange Slope, and the crisscrossing rural scenery.
The most famous landmark of Jiangbulake is actually "Dao Tiao Ling". Among the continuous snow-capped mountains, there is a snow-capped mountain that rises high and stretches out in a long strip, standing like a blade. Therefore, local herdsmen call it "Dao Tiao Ling". In local history and culture, Dao Tiao Ling resembles an ancient castle and serves as an iconic symbol.
In autumn, Jiangbulake boasts rolling golden wheat fields and large piles of wheat stacks. Amidst the golden fields, a few quaint trees will be dotted around, accompanied by cattle, sheep, and houses. This scenery is comparable to Europe’s most famous Barbizon estate and the villages sketched by world-renowned painters such as Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.
Jiaohe Ancient City – The Perfect Ruin
The Ancient City of Jiaohe is the world’s largest and oldest, best-preserved city made of sun-dried bricks. It is also the most complete urban relic preserved in China for over two thousand years and is hailed as "the most perfect ruin in the world".
The Ancient City of Jiaohe was founded and built by the Cheshi people from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century. It reached its heyday during the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty. From the 9th to the 14th century, due to its strategic location, the city was frequently involved in wars and gradually declined. Eventually, it was abandoned due to severe damage.
After thousands of years of wind and rain, the main structure of Jiaohe Ancient City’s architectural layout has miraculously survived. The scale of Jiaohe Ancient City is roughly that of Tang Dynasty construction. It stands on cliffs on all four sides, with three city gates carved into the cliffs on the east, west, and south sides.
Apart from lacking city walls, another distinctive feature of its architectural form is that most of the buildings in the entire city, regardless of size, were excavated downwards from the surface of towering mesas using the method of "reducing the ground and retaining the walls". The entire city resembles a heavily fortified large fortress, easy to defend but hard to attack.
Jiaohe Ancient City is a huge ancient sculpture with unique architectural craftsmanship, unparalleled in China and rarely seen abroad.
Flame Mountain – A Classic from Journey to the West
Those who have watched "Journey to the West" are certainly not unfamiliar with Flame Mountain. In fact, this place is not fictional. Flame Mountain is the most famous attraction in Turpan, Xinjiang, located at the northern edge of the Turpan Basin.
Flame Mountain, known as "Keziletag" in Uyghur, meaning "Red Mountain", was also named "Volcano" due to its intense heat. Every summer, the reddish-brown mountain body glows under the scorching sun, with blazing hot air rolling upwards, resembling blazing flames and flickering fire tongues, hence its alternative name of Flame Mountain.
Flame Mountain is the hottest place in China, with a maximum summer temperature of 47.8°C and a maximum ground temperature of 89°C. Eggs can be cooked in sand pits here, earning it the title of "China’s Hottest Place". Most of the houses in the Flame Mountain area are semi-basement style, half buried underground, and sun-dried bricks, which cool quickly, have always been the main building material locally.
Due to the relatively horizontal accumulation of strata, coupled with alternating layers of soft and hard rock, the Flame Mountain has formed gullies down the slope over years of rain erosion. The eroded material from the mountain has formed a red alluvial fan skirt at the foot of the mountain, and the leading edge of the fan skirt has formed countless polygonal cracks in the arid environment, drawing particular attention.
Kanas – The Mysterious Lake
"Kanas" is a Mongolian term meaning "beautiful and mysterious lake". With snow-capped peaks towering above green slopes and dark forests, Kanas Lake, with its breathtaking scenery, is praised as a "fairyland on earth, the garden of gods".
The water of Kanas Lake comes from the glacial meltwater of mountains such as Kuitun and Friendship Peak, as well as local precipitation. The deepest point of the lake is at an altitude of 1,181.5 meters, with a depth of 188.5 meters. It is the deepest moraine dammed lake in China, a mountain lake and inland freshwater lake nestled in the dense forests of the Altai Mountains.
There are several must-see wonders at Kanas Lake. The first is the kilometer-long deadwood dike, formed by floating wood in the lake being blown upstream by strong valley winds and piled up at the upstream end of the lake. The second is the giant "water monster" in the lake, which often drags horses drinking by the lakeside into the water, adding a touch of mystery to Kanas. The third is the cloud sea and Buddha’s light, a spectacle that appears only after the rain clears up.
Fish-Viewing Terrace is a must-visit attraction in Kanas, originally built in 1987 and renamed Fish-Viewing Terrace after renovation. Looking up at Fish-Viewing Terrace from the lake surface at the foot of the mountain, it resembles an altar for burning incense sitting solemnly on the west mountain. When there are clouds or sunset glow in the sky, the altar is filled with clouds and mist, with auspicious clouds and fairy aura pervading the area.
Karez Folk Culture Park – Ancient Wisdom
Karez, the Great Wall, and the Canal are collectively known as the Three Ancient Engineering Marvels of China. This is an underground waterway project created by working people to improve their survival abilities, based on local climatic, hydrological, and ecological conditions.
There are about more than 1600 karez in Xinjiang, with the most concentrated in the Turpan Basin. The Karez Folk Culture Park is only three kilometers from the city center, including karez, the Karez Museum, Folk Street, Folk Residence Hotels, vineyards, etc. It allows people to visit karez with a history of more than 400 years and its historical development process, while also understanding Uyghur folk customs.
Those who have visited karez cannot help but marvel at its ingenious design and the arduousness of the project. On the Gobi desert surrounding the lush oasis, one can see piles of round earth mounds descending along the steep slopes, shaped like small volcanic cones and orderly extending towards the oasis. These are the vertical wellheads of karez.
The clear springs of karez irrigate the land of Turpan, transforming the Gobi desert of Huozhou into fertile oasis farmland. Although Turpan has now built new canals and reservoirs, karez still plays a special role as a source of life in modern construction.
Grape Valley – A Foodie’s Paradise
Grape Valley is a gorge under Flaming Mountain, known as the ‘Peach Blossom Spring’ of Huozhou. The Buyiluke River flows through the valley, with its main water source being meltwater from high mountains. It is named after its abundant grape production, and the grapes here are the most renowned, famous both at home and abroad.
Here, you can experience the magical landscapes of nature, taste the sweetest grapes in the world, and also enjoy the enthusiastic dances of Uyghur young men in Grape Valley, thrilling Dawazi performances, lively and festive grape-picking by young girls, etc., leaving one too busy to take it all in.
Here, seedless white grapes are mainly planted, along with 13 other varieties such as Malnai, red grapes, Kashgar, Rijigan, and Suosuo. Some grapes are as clear as pearls, some are as bright as agate, and some are as green as jade.
Especially the seedless white grapes produced here are thin-skinned, tender, juicy, and delicious, earning them the nickname of ‘pearls’. Their sugar content is as high as 20-24%, exceeding that of grapes from California, USA, and ranking first in the world. The raisins dried from seedless white grapes have a sugar content of up to 60%, and are considered treasures among raisins.
The grapes here are particularly sweet and have a very high sugar content, which is caused by Turpan’s unique climate: high temperatures during the day enhance photosynthesis in crops, favoring the accumulation of nutrients; low temperatures at night weaken the respiratory action of crops, reducing the consumption of nutrients. Therefore, the grapes here are unmatched by grapes from other regions.
Xinjiang Tourism Consultation: (Same) 0991-8585456