Kashgar's Ancient City opens each day with a spectacle: a Bactrian camel in full Central Asian regalia parades through the arched gate, warriors draw bows on horseback, and musicians play the Uyghur Muqam — a UNESCO-listed art form — from the turreted walls. It's a lively, stage-managed welcome to the far-western Chinese region of Xinjiang, and one an Australian travel writer recently experienced firsthand as a guest of the China National Tourist Office.
The trip was timed around the 19th Xinjiang Winter Tourism Industry Expo, with a focus on the region's fast-developing ski scene across the Altay, Kunlun and Tianshan ranges. Xinjiang claims 101 ski areas, and the standout is Hemu Jikepulin, a genuine big-mountain resort near Hemu village, where from the top lift you can spot Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia in a single turn. Getting there is half the adventure: a 90-minute flight from Urumqi to Altay, then a five-hour 4WD drive through yurt-dotted plains and past Kanas Lake to Hemu itself, a low-rise wooden village of the Tuva people buried in snow.
Urumqi, the regional capital and home to 4.1 million people, is six hours from Hong Kong by air and feels distinctly Central Asian rather than Han Chinese — mosque minarets, bazaars heaped with naan flatbread and dried fruit, and a local rhythm that ignores Beijing time (work rarely starts before 10am in winter). Handy detail for travellers: the writer roamed freely on an Australian roaming plan, sidestepping China's internet firewall.
Kashgar, though, is the soul of the region — a 2,000-year-old Silk Road hub whose name means "place where jade is gathered." The Gaotai Residential Area preserves centuries-old streetscapes with intricately carved doors and bricks patterned with meaning (a hexagonal layout signals "unimpeded access"). Highlights include the Hundred-Year-Old Tea House, where ginger, rose and saffron tea comes with live Uyghur music and dance; a 300-year-old merchant's residence with 20 rooms and handmade Hotan carpets; and the Apak Hoja Tomb at the Xiangfei Garden. The five-star Yifei Hotel has rooms from about $150.
The writer doesn't gloss over the politics. The UN human rights office has described Xinjiang as a site of "systematic human rights violations" against the Uyghurs — claims Beijing denies — and much of Kashgar's Ancient City has been rebuilt, with critics calling parts of it ersatz. Locals he approached gave wary, wordless answers about religious freedom; one young man quietly said only the old may worship. Still, the piece lands on a thoughtful note: tourism is putting real money into Uyghur-owned businesses, and visitors seeing the region — even a curated version of it — may shine a light on a place with very little independent coverage.
For adventurous skiers and Silk Road enthusiasts, Xinjiang is a genuine frontier: extraordinary mountains, layered cultures and infrastructure racing to catch up. Go with eyes open, and know you'll be watched as much as watching. Details from the original: Cathay Pacific flies Sydney to Urumqi via Hong Kong, China Southern connects to Altay, and Chengdu Airlines flies Altay to Kashgar.
