Introducing Xinjiang
A few people have asked us about where we are living, and bemoaned the paucity of material about the Xinjiang Region. So using the limited resources available here, Lonely Planet’s China
Xinjiang - an overview
Xinjiang is located west of the original setting off point for the Silk Road - Xi’an and in ancient times was known to the Chinese as the "Western Regions." Xinjiang’s full name is the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and it is the largest province in modern China. Situated as it is, in the far west of China, or in the far east of the Middle East, Xinjiang is as much a bridge between two worlds today as it was a thousand years ago when it was part of the Silk Road.
The current borders of Xinjiang link the place to not only Gansu and Qinghai in the east, and Tibet in the south, but also to eight countries: Mongolia in the northeast, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kurgizstan and Tajikistan in the northwest, as well as Pakistan and India in the south. Of these the borders to Kazakhstan, Kurgizstan, and Pakistan are easily traversable and then Pakistan only during the warmer months.
This province has borders of 5400 kilometers and a land mass of 1,600,000 square kilometers, and with the exception of salt water, seas and oceans, Xinjiang offers a variation of natural geography almost unparalleled in the world. At one-sixths the total territory of China, Xinjiang is three times larger than France, 7 times larger than the United Kingdom and four and a half times larger than Japan. The regions oil, coal and metal reserves have resulted in significant development over the past few decades.
In the same way that the Southern Alps divide the South Island of New Zealand, the Tianshan Mountain range, one of the largest mountain ranges divide Xinjiang north and south.
To the north of the Tianshan Mountains lies the Zhungar Basin - the second largest in the region. Hundreds of millions of years ago the basin used to contain a vast sea fringed with wetlands and forests. This past has left the region with large areas of petrified trees, dinosaur fossils from the Mesozoic era as well as large coal and oil reserves.
With the prefectural capital of Urumqi at its heart, the Zhungar Basin is the most heavily populated region in Xinjiang. Other towns in the Basin include Changli, Manasi, Jimsar, Fukang and Qitai along with the recent addition of the oil base at Keramay and Shihez.
To the north of the Zhungar Basin lie the Altay Mountains where murals depicting what may be the earliest known pictures of skiing have recently been found. The Ertix (Erqisi) River in the Altay region is also the only river in China to flow into the Arctic Ocean. The grassland and mountains in this area are reminiscent of the vistas to be found in parts of Siberia. For tourists the main attractions in the area include Kanas Lake and the hot springs at Alashan.
More heavily travelled are the parts to the south of the Tianshan Mountain Range. This area includes the largest basin in China - the Tarim Basin and the great and mysterious Taklamakan Desert.
The Tarim Basin is encircled by some of the most formidable mountains in the world - to the west lie the Pamirs, the Roof of the World, to the south and south-west lie the Kunlun, Kara-kunlun and Alkin mountain ranges. Of the world’s 14 peaks over 8000 meters 4 are in Xinjiang including K2 which at 8611 meters is the second highest on the planet. 11 mountains are open to climbers although travel permits are usually required.
These great mountain ranges feed some 19,091 glaciers which in turn provide that scarcest of resources - water - to what is in many ways one of the most inhospitable on Earth. These glaciers and snow melt feed rivers throughout the Tarim Basin, including China’s largest inland river, known strangely enough as the Tarim River, as well countless lakes and nurture the string of oases that made the Silk Road a possibility.
The original Silk Road began at what is now known as Xi’an into Xinjiang through Hami and on to Turpan where the road branched, much as the railway does today. The northern route proceeded on through the current capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi to what is now Kazakhstan whilst a central route carried travellers along the north of the Tarim Basin through Korla (Kuerle), Luntai, Kuqa (Kuche), Aksu (Akesu) and on to Kashgar (Kashi) from where it was possible to proceed south to Pakistan or further west to Tajikistan or Kurgizstan and then onto Uzbekistan or Afghanistan.
A southern route skirted the Basin from the now ruined city of Loulan through Charklik (Ruo Qiang), Cherchen (Qie Mo), Niya (Minfeng), Hotan (Hetian) and up to Kashgar.
These oasis towns which supported the merchants and travellers on their travels developed and died with the rivers to the extent that over 40 ruined cities have been discovered so far in or alongside the Tarim Basin. The most famous of these is Loulan, with Turpan’s Jiaohe and Gaochang (Khocho) ruins also being popular with travellers.
Today Xinjiang remains an exciting place with an exhilarating range of landscapes for the eyes to feast on, economic development and the interaction of the growing Han Chinese population with the local Uighur, Kazakh and Mongolian minorities for the mind to ponder.
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