Changji
Bogda
The eastern high component of Xinjiang Tianshan, above Fukang.
Where the snow goes
Xinjiang.
Canals, meadows, and streets that still work
Snow on Bogda is not the same water as a karez under Turpan, a wild apple above Xinyuan, or the Irtysh leaving for the Arctic. Kashgar's lanes are lived in. Karamay begins with a well. The region opens through these differences, not through one desert photograph.
Turpan karez
In Turpan, vertical shafts open onto the underground channels of the karez. Follow the water into stories of oasis orchards and everyday streets.
Explore this placeWater across the landscape
Selected places connect mountain landscapes with oasis streets.
Kashgar
Kashgar Old City
A 5A scenic area in Kashgar City that is also a residential neighbourhood.
Bortala
Sayram Lake
Bortala's high lake, and the Mongol arts the prefecture stages in its holiday season.
Water, cloth and song
Follow Turpan's karez, Hotan's atlas silk, and Kashgar's muqam.
From the journal
From shaft to pool
A karez is a sequence of holes, a dark channel, a ditch and a pond, made so that water spends less time in the sun.
From the journal
Dye before the loom
In Jiya, atlas means tie-dye: silk is bound and dyed, and only then woven, in houses and in factories.
From the journal
Not one song
Uyghur Muqam is song, dance and instruments in four regional styles. Kashgar holds the Twelve Muqam, not all four.
All 14 regions
Explore the complete collection across all 14 regions of Xinjiang.
Ürümqi
The regional capital opens on a working craft street rather than on a skyline.
All articlesChangji
East of the capital, Bogda's snow and Heaven Lake mark another edge of the Tianshan.
All articlesKaramay
A Junggar city dated from an oil well, later given a public riverfront.
All articlesTurpan
A hot basin read through underground water, hanging grapes and a city cut from earth.
All articlesHami
The eastern oasis, introduced through the many published names of its melons.
All articlesIli
A western valley of wild apples, high meadow, and a street in Yining that still cooks.
All articlesBortala
A Mongol autonomous prefecture met at Sayram Lake, with epic and fiddle still in its holiday programme.
All articlesAltay
The prefecture of the Irtysh, the river that leaves China for the Arctic.
All articlesTacheng
A northern prefecture whose Emin River stays inland.
All articlesBayingolin
A Mongol autonomous prefecture read through a high basin of river bends and a large freshwater lake.
All articlesAksu
The western high Tianshan in Wensu, and Buddhist caves cut into a cliff in Baicheng.
All articlesKashgar
A lived old city of lanes and workshops, and a muqam repertoire that is not one local song.
All articlesHotan
Atlas silk bound and dyed before the loom in Jiya, and shops under lived rooms in Tuan Cheng.
All articlesKizilsu
A Kyrgyz autonomous prefecture met through Manas sung aloud, without a single invented hall.
All articlesPhoto credits and rights
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Heaven Lake: water under the Bogda snow, forest on the lower slopes.oldhouse.yin · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Sayram Lake from its shore; the far ridge keeps snow into summer.Fumikas Sagisavas · CC0 1.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗