headseast

It is easy to forget that a country with 1.3 billion people and which seems to make a large percentage of the world’s goods from endless factories actually has some outstanding scenery. China’s mountains are largely unknown to foreigners but just look a topographical map of China and you can see there huge areas of wild, mountainous terrain. The obvious range is the Himalaya’s in Tibet and bordering and crossing into Nepal. Other huge ranges can be found in Xinjiang province (the Parmirs, Altai and Tian Chi ranges), The Kunlun range in Qinghai province and the sacred mountains that dot China from Sichuan to Beijing. China.org has a list of it’s top ten here and below are some of the ones we have explored in recent years.

We arrived in Dunhuang today which has given the first access to internet since we left Beijing. Xinjiang Province has had it’s internet cut off since the trouble there in July. The two days spent there are quite possibly the longest amount of time I have spent without internet for many years! Xinjiang doesn’t disappoint despite being very cold this time of year. We headed straight to Turfan, a desert oasis 3 hours drive East from Urumqi. The city of 200,000 doesn’t offer so much in itself but the area and sights around it make the visit well worthwhile. Below is a selection of photos from the last two days.