Xinjiang – Part One

There is a saying that goes, you don’t know how big China is until you have been to Xinjiang. Having returned from a week-long trip to this mystical region in China’s northwest corner, I’d say that you don’t know how breathtakingly beautiful China is until you have been to Xinjiang. No, this has nothing to do with green rice fields, dainty willows, and the winding shape of the Yangtze – here the greatness of this wild landscape overwhelms you and pulls you in. Its appeal is indescribable – I have barely returned, and I already want to go back.

I flew from Beijing to Urumqi (Xinjiang’s capital) and immediately began a ten hour bus ride to Kanas, a region at the northwestern tip of China, bordering Kazakhstan. The beauty of Kanas is so astounding that it was said to have wowed Genghis Khan himself, who passed by during his European conquest and allowed his army to rest here as a reward.

The scenery along the way did not change for the first seven hours or so  blue skies and the Gobi desert, but by nightfull, we had reached the town of Burqin, from where we would drive up to Kanas in the morning. It is a tranquil town of 3000, but inhabited by Mongols, Kazakhs, and Uzbeks, there was something exotic about even the most ordinary streets.

My legs were like lead, so I strolled along the Erqis river, which runs through the town. The river flows into China from Kazakhstan and smells like glacial snow.

The next morning, as we drive up the mountain, the deserts disappear and instead, we see high altitude steppes and Kazakh men galloping down the mountain on horseback. This region had belonged to Kazakhstan before 1952 and retains the untamed air of Central Asia.

And finally, we reach Kanas. I didn’t know it then, but I was about to witness the most breathtakingly gorgeous work of nature, ever.