The Wusun Ancient Trail: 8 Days Across the Tianshan

Meet in Yining, drive east through the Ili valley to Tekes — the county town laid out as a giant bagua, or eight-trigram wheel, with radial streets and no traffic lights worth the name — then up the valley to Qiongkushitai, a wooden Kazakh village at 1,950 m at the trailhead. Evening walk on the pastures, gear check with the mule team, and an early night in a homestead.

Meeting point note: Yining has direct flights from Urumqi and Xi'an; most travellers overnight in Urumqi and connect the same morning.

Cross the village bridge and follow the Qiongkushitai river upstream through dense Schrenk spruce — some of the finest forest in the Tianshan — climbing steadily to a herder camp on a river flat at about 2,450 m. Ten gentle kilometres that feel like a warm-up act, which is exactly what they are.

The first hard day: a long scree ramp to the Baozha pass at 3,660 m, cairned and snow-patched until late June. The reward is the view south — range after range of the central Tianshan, and the V of the Kounusay valley falling away below. Descend to camp near 3,050 m. Start early; the pass generates its own weather by afternoon.

A long descent through the gorge system to the Kokesu river — a drop of a thousand metres into canyon country, past cliff swallows and the first roadside shrine cairns. Cross at the herders' crossing point and camp near the rusted cableway at about 2,000 m, the crossing's lowest and warmest night. Wading shoes on; the river is the boss here, and the guide reads its morning level before anyone steps in.

Follow the south bank upstream into the Akbulak valley, climbing through open meadow country to the moment every photo of this trail is built on: Paradise Lake — Akbulak lake — appearing at the head of the valley, an unnatural slab of blue under granite walls. Camp on the shore pastures at 3,000 m. Afternoon free for the lakeshore; the light at dusk turns the water electric.

Round the lake on the shepherds' ledges and climb the long scree to the Akbulak pass at 3,890 m — the crossing's summit, usually patched with snow. The south side drops over a thousand metres into the Boz-Kirghiz river country; camp in the upper valley. This is the day your fitness was built for.

Down the Boz-Kirghiz valley on herder and jeep tracks — a long, hot, low-altitude day through red rock country that already feels like the Tarim basin. At the Heiyingshan trailhead the 4WDs are waiting; drive out to Baicheng county and on to Kuqa by evening for the first proper bed in a week.

Depart from Kuqa — with time for the Kizil caves or the grand canyon if your flight allows, both half-hours away and both worth a day. Or continue west: the silk oases journey picks up exactly here, and the two make a natural pair.