Duku Highway Self-Drive: 7 Days

Collect the vehicles in the morning and drive west across the Junggar rim to Sayram lake — a big blue alpine sea at 2,070 m ringed by summer pastures. Evening lap of the lake road; first-night briefing over lamb skewers.

South past Khorgos option and the Guozigou bridge — a high viaduct slung through a spruce gorge — to Dushanzi, where the grand canyon's red walls cut a kilometre-long notch into the plateau. Sunset at the canyon rim; the Duku starts at the hotel's doorstep tomorrow.

Onto the G217 as it climbs out of Dushanzi into the true Tianshan: glacier viewpoint parking, the vertical-banded 'Tianshan mystery' cliffs, and passes above 3,000 m with snow panels taller than the car. The night is booked on the mountain at the half-way hot-spring town — bathing suits optional, altitude easy.

The road's southern half drops through the big-wall gorge of the Kuqa river — a slot of vertical sandstone the highway threads for tens of kilometres — and runs out into the dry oasis country. Evening arrival in Kuqa; the air smells of the bazaar already.

The Mysterious Grand Canyon in the morning — walk-in red walls, narrow slots and the small shrine cave at its head — then the Kizil thousand-Buddha caves, whose murals predate the Mogao by a century or more. Two civilizations' worth of rock in one day.

A town day at driving pace: the grand mosque, the Qing-era customs house quarter, the beamery of Kuqa's famous big naan, and a last market dinner. Vehicles are handed back this evening — the train takes the strain from here.

Morning transfer to the Kuqa rail station and the fast train north — about six hours through the desert rim and the pass — arriving in Urumqi by evening for onward flights. The car stays in Kuqa; the memories do the return trip at no charge.