The Xinjiang Silk Road: 18 Days

Arrive in Urumqi and ease in: the regional museum's famous mummies of the Tarim — real silk-road people, two thousand years preserved by the same dryness that ruined their cities — and the grand bazaar for a first dinner at altitude (900 m; easy).

High-speed rail under an hour to the Turpan depression, 154 metres below the sea. The karez wells that watered it all, then dusk at Jiaohe — the best-preserved raw-earth city on earth, empty and gold at closing light.

Dawn at Tuyoq village among the trellised vineyards, the Bezeklik painted caves in the flaming gorge, and Gaochang's city walls. A long vineyard lunch and the evening rail back to Urumqi — or the direct flight's prep, depending on the season's schedule.

Fly across the Tianshan to Yining and the Ili valley — the green half of the territory. Afternoon in the Kazanqi quarter: painted lanes, Russian-style courtyards, and the city's legendary ice-cream tradition.

West to Sayram lake at 2,070 m — the largest alpine lake in the range, ringed by summer pasture. The lake road lap with picnic stops; the night is lakeside with the star field doing its whole show.

The Kalajun grassland — UNESCO-listed Tianshan pasture country — with a half-day walk on the rolling trail and a Kazakh household visit. Evening in a grassland guesthouse: hearth tea, home bread, big quiet.

A valley day at driving pace: the octagonal street-plan of Tekes, the Ili horse studs, and the lavender-or-orchard roads depending on the month. The week's best dinner is here — the valley's mixed-heritage cooking at its peak.

Fly from Yining over the range to Kuqa — the old kingdom of Qiuci on the northern arc. Evening at the grand mosque square and the bazaar's big naan, stamped and stacked as they have been for a century.

The Kizil thousand-Buddha caves — painted a century or more before the Mogao — and the Mysterious Grand Canyon's red walls in the long light. Two of the northern arc's unmissable sites in one deliberate day.

South onto the desert highway: poplar belt, then dune sea. Lunch at the mid-route station, a dune-crest walk at the convoy point, and the night at the highway's desert lodge.

The crossing's second half as the dunes thin into the oasis belt. Hotan by mid-afternoon: the jade market's tables of river stones and the first taste of the south's warmer, sweeter cooking.

Morning at the White Jade River where families sift the banks, then the carpet workshops and the dried-fruit market that makes Hotan the south's pantry. Evening flight to Kashgar or the desert-rim road, by season.

Arrive in Kashgar for three nights in the old city. Late-afternoon walk from the east gate as the day cools: craft lanes, bread ovens, teahouse rooftops.

The Apak Hoja shrine, the working lanes of the old city, and the International Grand Bazaar — a genuine trading market, not a show. Evening free to repeat the week's best dinner.

Sunday brings the livestock market — thousands of sheep, horses and cattle and the largest market of its kind in Asia — paired with the pottery and coppersmith lanes after lunch. The schedule bends to the market's day of the week.

West up the G314: the red canyon at Oytag, White Sand lake at 3,300 m, then Karakul at 3,600 m under Muztagh Ata. Evening on the lake track; the mountain goes pink and then violet. The altitude step, taken gently.

The lake at dawn, then the plateau road to Tashkurgan: the two-thousand-year stone city above the golden grassland, a Tajik household visit with hearth tea, and the journey's farewell dinner under the clearest sky of the eighteen days.

The highway back down with the morning sun on the other side of the road, arriving Kashgar for onward flights — or the extension: the Pamir can connect directly to Pakistan-side travel for those continuing west.