Ancient cities, museums, and Silk Road heritage sites in Xinjiang.
Meet Xinjiang’s last reindeer herders on a self-drive trip through the Altai. A first-hand guide to the Ewenki, permits, costs, timing, and the road from Burqin to Hemu.
From lattice sun-breakers to painted chests, woodwork is one of Xinjiang’s most visible folk arts. We visit the carvers, decode the motifs, and explain what makes a piece worth carrying home.
Long before boutique wellness brands, Xinjiang’s families were making soap from mutton tallow, rose oil and wild herbs. A look at the workshops, the ingredients, and where to buy the real thing.
Felt and leather are the living crafts of Xinjiang’s grasslands, from Kazakh syrmak rugs and yurt felt to raw leather boots and tack. Learn where to watch, buy fairly, and respect the makers.
Dolan knives are pattern-welded blades forged by the Dolan people of Awat and Maigaiti in southern Xinjiang. This guide explains how they are made, where to buy one legally, and how to clear customs taking it home.
The dutar and rawap are the two-stringed lutes behind Uyghur muqam. This guide covers how they are built and tuned, where travelers can hear them in Kashgar, Yining, and Hotan, and how to buy one without overpaying.
From Kazakh steppe ponies to golden Akhal-Teke bloodlines, Xinjiang is horse country. This guide covers where the herds roam, the festivals, and how to meet the animals safely.
From Pamir stone courts to Turpan’s mud-brick yards, Xinjiang’s Silk Road caravanserais kept the trade alive. Here is where to walk their ruins and how they worked.
The Night I Let a Baxish Cup My Back I had been driving the southern Tarim loop for nine days when the knots in my lower back finally won. A practical, experience-led guide for foreign travelers driving Xinjiang’s remote
First Light Over the Ili Valley I watched a Kazakh falconer release his bird above the Ili valley at first light, and for a few seconds the gyrfalcon was only a smudge against the pale sky.
