Day four in Xinjiang: Ili

By Dominic Swire

Thursday 21 August 2009

We are now in Ili, west Xinjiang, the only autonomous Kazakh prefecture in the whole of China. We arrived here yesterday following a 12 hour bus journey that took us through heaven and hell. The roads we took ran through some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen in my life. Rolling green grasslands with roaming horses and snowcapped mountains in the distance. We stopped by a lake on the way that was so big it felt like a trip to the seaside.

CRI buses stop for a rest on the way to Yili prefecture in Xinjiang  autonomous region, as taken on Thursday 21 August, 2009.[Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

Yet later on the journey we had a reminder of how this region is still very much developing as the bus had to cover miles of the journey on unfinished roads. The bumpy terrain kicked up endless amounts of dust and repeatedly threw us at the back of the vehicle out of our seats. But the stunning mountain vistas we could see through the windows provided some kind of compensation.

We arrived at our current hotel last night. This used to be a consulate of the Soviet Union and is absolutely massive. Driving past a golden bust of Lenin by the entrance a winding path leads through a mini forest before reaching the main reception, which sports thick marble pillars and a huge chandelier handing from the ceiling.