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Another early start with a short 30 minute drive from our hotel to the Nalati Grassland park. The grasslands are situated in a long narrow plane between two mountain ranges and have been home to Kazak herdsman for many centuries. The herdsman still live in their yurts and heard their sheep...

More photos of the trip from Sayram Lake to the grasslands plus our hotel for the night.

After lunch on the lake it was back on the bus for the 5 hour drive to the Nalati Grasslands park. While the amount of travel due to the distance between many of the areas was quite tiring I hardly ever slept on the bus or in daylight on the train because I was always worried that I would miss...

Found some more random photos from the first part of this trip that I will add. They are mainly of myself and my wife plus her friends who inspired and organised us to make this journey.

From Yinning station we travelled for an hour or so to Sayram lake. The lake is the largest (458 km2 or 177 sq mi) and also the highest (at 2,070 m or 6,790 ft) alpine lake in Xinjiang. More wonderful meadows filled with wildflowers. Quite a few camping sites in Xinjiang which is quite...

Overnight and breakfast on the train and then back on the bus headed to Sayram lake somewhere near the Kazakhstan border. Again no idea where the station was where we reboarded the train. I think we arrived in a city called Yinning.

Lunch with the local villagers. Local tradition is to throw sweets at guests as they arrive.

After leaving Hemu village we travelled by bus over mountain ranges headed to a station (unknown as by this time the stations had no English name and the names were only in Mandarin and an Islamic style language) to reboard the train. We had a stopover at a small village where we enjoyed lunch...

Photos from the top. Mid summer. You can see Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan from here. Breathtaking. You can stay overnight in these.

Later on our second day in Hemu we headed off to visit a mountain resort with a cable car ride to the summit. That was all I knew as we jumped on the bus. Again zero expectations of what or where we were going. This really was a magical mystery tour. Again this place exceeded my expectations. We...

More photos from the village and surrounding area. I think this photo says a lot about the contrasts in modern China. There were many Golden Eagles flying but my phone camera zoom wasn't good enough to get a clear photo.

While the rest of our party relaxed at the lodge I walked to the original village which was around 2-3 klms away from the newer township constructed to house the tour groups. After almost 3 hours of walking I returned exhausted to our hotel. Photos from that evening and next morning. I found...

Our next few days were spent in another area of the Kanas Geopark at the Hemu Village which is located in Burqin County, Altay District, about 30 kilometers east of Kanas Lake. It is a small village inhabited by Kazakhs and Tuwa people. There has been a number of lodge type hotels constructed a...

More photos from the Kanas Geopark area. The first days of the tour have been amazing. Not even really knowing where we were going and only researching the region once we arrived using Google maps and then getting an idea of where we were was a completely new and wonderful experience from...

After a very relaxing night in the mountain village and another breakfast in a yurt we were back on the bus for a drive through the mountains to the Kanas Geopark. At this time we are right in the Northwest corner of China and reasonably close to Russia, Mongolia and Kazakstan. The park...

A few more photos from my phone that I don't have on my laptop. Mask wearing for sun protection. Very common with women in China these days.

We had a fantastic evening with plenty of time to wander around the area. Still many local herdsmen going about their daily routines with sheep, cattle and horses driven through the streets. An excellent local dinner in a yurt. The valley was filled with wildflowers and very picturesque.

A long but wonderful scenic drive from Rainbow Beach to our overnight hotel in Burquin County. The changing scenery along the way was always spectacular often changing from desert, to meadows, mountain passes and back to desert within a few hours dependent on which side of the mountains you were...

Rainbow Beach or Seven Colours Beach was our next viewing point. As with many Chinese scenic areas there is an entrance fee to visit. The areas are usually quite large and offer opportunities to walk large distances and we had plenty of time to explore at our own pace. We visited in the middle...

Breakfast early on the train and then transferred onto a bus at Beitunshi Station. A few hours driving toward the next scenic spot. Again mostly semi arid with regular agricultural areas around water sources and under irrigation. Interestingly that although Xinjiang has a number of rivers fed...