XinJiang Province: The Biggest Province in China

From Kazakhstan to Mongolia, you must cross the most culturally diverse Province in China... Here's our experience while hitch hiking across Xinjiang Province!

Xinjiang Province is located in the North East of China, and is the biggest of China's 23 Provinces. This province is known as being one of the most culturally diverse area in China, which is completely understandable when you realise it boarders 8 countries - Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and India!! Due to this, there are many minorities who live in this province, from Mongol to Kazakh, Han Chinese to Russian... There is also a large Uyghur population, which moved Xinjiang from Provincial status to Autonomous Region status in 1955, it's official name being:

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

新疆维吾尔自治区

Even though Xinjiang Province covers an area of 1.6million square km (640,000 square miles... a similar size to the country Iran), only 9.7% of the land is uninhabitable by humans. There are three mountain ranges that run along the majority of the boarders, as well as Southern and Western regions. There is also a large proportion of desert-like steppes, with small oasis-type towns dotted throughout the area.

XinjiangProvince is split into two main geographical/ historical and ethnical distinct regions with different historical names;

- North of the Tian Shan mountains > Dzungaria; an area that was home to nomadic Tibetan Buddhist Dzungar People, who roamed the steppes in a similar manner to their Mongol neighbours.

- South of the Tian Shan mountains > Tamrin Basin (Altishahr); this area was home to Muslim farmers who spoke Turkic language, and lived in Oasis' in the Taklamakan desert. They were later known as Uyghur people.

The capital of this incredible province is Ürümqi (乌鲁木齐), which was a major hub of activity for trades on the Silk Road. Today, Ürümqi has a population of around 3.5million people, and is known as one of the furthest cities from any sea in the world... but also known as the most important trade route in North-East China.

Our experience...

We spent around 2 weeks in Xinjiang Province, including a week in the capital Ürümqi. We entered the province from the Western boarder with Kazakhstan, where we hitch hiked for 2 days to Ürümqi.

During our time hitch hiking this route we were surprised by how similar the landscape and culture was to that of the Kazakh and Kyrgyz. We saw many yurt villages and local people herding their livestock, in amongst huge mountains and deep valleys with big rivers winding through them.

We ended up spending the first night of our Xinjiang hitch hike at a lake that was a complete surprise to us. We planned to stay here, but we did not realise the lakes altitude would be 2000m high... and the road to get there was absolutely incredible, with a series of tunnels and bridges with views for miles! Here we met some very friendly farmers who were herding their sheep as we had breakfast and did yoga by the lake. They came over to us, just to have a look, and ask us some questions that were lost in translation (or lack of translation!).

The next night we made it to Ürümqi, where we spent a few days locked up in a hostel, photo/video editing. BUT after this was done we went out to explore this city, spending a morning at Xinjiang Region Museum, which is 'famous for having the artifacts and mummies of Caucasians who lived in the region between 1,500 and 4,000 years ago. There is also a collection of silk articles and other artifacts from various eras of history, as well as written materials in different languages. The museum also instructs on the customs of the ethnic groups in the region.' [source: China Highlights]

Yes, you read that right, there are very well preserved mummies on display, of Caucasian people who once lived in this area... which is a huge highlight of this museum, but there is so much more to see too! The comparsion between the traditional cultures, clothes and traditions of the different minorities that make up Xinjiang Province is really interesting, with each minority having it's own exhibition hall that links to the next.

This museum is an absolute must-see while in the capital of Xinjiang Province.

My second must-see while in Ürümqi, is the Red Mountain Park (Hong Shan Park - 红山公园). This beautiful park leads you up to a 500m hill in the middle of the city, giving you an amazing view. It's best to spend sunset here; watching the sky turn orange/pink as the sun lights up the mountains in the distance, leaving the city to sparkle as the night sets in. A definite photo spot!

After leaving Ürümqi we headed East towards the Mongolian boarder, where we ended up in a group of around 20 Chinese tourists, who were sharing 3 cars and heading in exactly the direction we wanted... but with a stop over in a popular tourist destination. So we chilled out for a couple of hours, then headed on our way with this really fun group.

We asked them to let us out at a gas station, around 200km later. Here we met a really friendly guy who worked in the station, who gave us hot water for food and the next day he woke us up to have breakfast with his wife and friend. Then he drove us to the most convenient place for our onwards journey. People like him make this whole experience worth having, he was so genuine and welcoming to us!

After a couple more rides and a quick stop at a police check point, we found we were only 70km from the Mongolian boarder... However, we were he only people planning to enter Mongolia this way! We were waiting for a while until a guy could take us 20km, then a group of young Kazakh minority guys picked us up.

These guys were really nice, maybe in their mid 20's. As we were driving, a car carrying 5 Chinese men started to push us off the road, so the driver in our car beeped at this other car until they realised and swerved back into their lane. This caused some tension between our driver and theirs, and in the next 5 minutes this other car had block us so we couldn't drive forward. Out of the car came 5 Chinese men, one of which was very angry, he opened the door of our car and began the fight our driver. The 3 Kazakh minority guys we were with didn't fight back, but the Chinese guys were trying to fight all 3 of them, even though these Kazakh guys were half the age and twice the height of the Chinese.

We stayed in our car, and after 5 minutes we carried on our way a little shaken up but not physically harmed. Soon we came to a police check point and the Kazakh guys explained what had happened, but the Chinese car came and went with no problem.

This situation highlighted for us, the big problems Xinjiang Province has with it's many minorities. With different cultures and religions sharing the tiny area of Xinjiang that is inhabitable (only 9.7% of it's 640,000 square miles).

After this interesting ride, we didn't take long to hop in our final car of the Xinjiang hitch hike. We finally got to the boarder with Mongolia, where small groups of elderly Chinese seemed to be transporting goods across the boarder....

This is where hitch hiking REALLY got interesting...