Xinjiang, in China’s far west, is a place of adventure and jaw-dropping natural beauty. Our circular journey through China’s largest province traversed five thousand kilometres, taking us along the Silk Road across deserts, through mountain ranges, and alongside some of the world’s most stunning land formations. dotted throughout with green oasis towns full of colour and life and wonderful local Uyghur people.
I so often write about the food and people of a place, that it can be hard for you all to get a sense of the physical landscape we’re traveling through. I thought it was time to redress that with a series of photos, many taken from the passenger seat of our campervan, of the passing spectacle. I warn you – I’m not much of a landscape photographer, but the landscapes of Xinjiang are quite out of this world.
To put the area in context, Xinjiang borders Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tibet. Silk Road travelers passed through Xinjiang in both directions, bypassing the central desert.
Here’s the path we followed, skirting around the barren Taklamakan Desert via Turpan, Kashgar and Hotan, following first the northern then the southern Silk Road. The green alphabetical tags refer to the locations of the photos below.
If you would like more details about traveling off the beaten path in this part of the world, a very recently published guidebook by Jeremy Tredinnick – Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia – gives a detailed detailed look at the province and would have been a great help for us but was published just as we arrived in Xinjiang. We’ll definitely be getting hold of it for next time!

After seeing no-one for miles, suddenly there were four men in a row erecting new wiring, like some extraordinary roadside circus act framed by the distant mountains.

East of Turpan lies the legendary Flaming Mountain, where in the epic story ‘Journey to the West’ the Monkey King defeats the flames with the help of a Magic Fan. ‘After the first shake, the flames of the mountain died out. After the second shake, a cool gentle breeze arose. After the third, gentle rain fell everywhere and the pilgrims proceeded on their journey in comfort.
D. Borto-Ula Pass The G30 road from Turpan to Kashgar passes first through a steep north-south mountain valley, the winding road tracing the path of a dry riverbed between high, magnificent peaks. The midday sun struggles to reach the depths of the valley in places as you wind through bend after bend.

F. I still find it extraordinary that anyone could live in a landscape like this one. Treeless, almost devoid of plant life, and yet wild, rugged and magnificent.

H. Ortagh Valley You’ll see the turn-off to this alpine valley on the Karakoram Highway west of Kashgar. Its green fir trees, fertile meadows and glacial meltwaters are such a stark contrast to the arid cliffs of the Ghez Dariya Canyon nearby. At the head of the valley lies the black ice Ortagh Glacier (below), cleaving a path between mountains covered with snow.



