The three Silk Road branches through Xinjiang mapped: northern steppe, northern Tarim and southern Tarim routes. Distances, surviving ruins from Jiaohe to Kizil and Niya, what actually moved along them, permits, entry fees and a workable 14-day route.
The Sarikoli-speaking Tajiks of Tashkurgan at 3,100m: the hand-kissing greeting, the eagle-bone flute and eagle dance, why eagle hunting is a Kazakh not Tajik tradition, Nowruz and lamp festivals, border permits, altitude advice and homestay costs.
How Kazakh transhumance works across four seasonal pastures, what a yurt stay actually costs (CNY 80 to 800), horse trekking prices and safety warnings, besbarmak and kumis, yurt etiquette, and where to go in Kalajun, Nalati, Bayanbulak and the Altay.
Fermented mare’s milk, camel milk shubat, salted milk tea, Uyghur dora chay, eight-treasure tea, Ili Valley kvass and pressed pomegranate juice. Seasons, real prices from CNY 3 to 40, drinking etiquette and honest warnings about unpasteurised dairy at altitude.
How to find halal restaurants across Xinjiang: the qingzhen signage to look for, a printable dining card in Chinese and Uyghur, app search terms, a region-by-region map from Kashgar to the corps towns, and what to order for CNY 18 to 30.
Month-by-month Xinjiang fruit calendar with real bazaar prices per 500g: apricots, cherries, Hami melon, Turpan grapes, Korla pears, Hotan pomegranates and Aksu apples. How altitude shifts ripening by weeks, and how to buy without overpaying.
What Uyghur families actually eat in the morning: salted milk tea with naan torn into the bowl, samsa, tonur eggs, kalla pacha sheep head soup and opke-hesip. Timing, prices from CNY 10 to 30, etiquette and where to go in Kashgar, Hotan and Yining.
Fifteen Xinjiang street foods under CNY 20, with prices I actually paid: lamb kebabs, samsa, hoshan, liangpi, tonur eggs, hand-churned ice cream and more. Plus three market routes in Kashgar, Urumqi and Hotan, and the matang pricing scam to avoid.
A baker’s tour of Xinjiang naan: toqach, girde, gosh nan, Kuqa big naan, sesame, oil and ash breads. How the tonur oven works, real prices from CNY 1.5 to 15, how to spot a good bakery, and where to buy in Kashgar, Kuqa and Hotan.
Inside the Uyghur chaykhana: what to order (kara chay, dora chay, sut chay), real prices from CNY 3 to 25, teahouse etiquette, five specific tea houses in Kashgar, Hotan, Yining and Urumqi, and how solo travellers are received.
