Duku highway season
The 561-kilometre G217 crossing of the Tianshan runs on a season set by snow clearance — 2026 ran 1 June to 8 October. Details and planning notes.
Destinations / Xinjiang /
The season board.
Xinjiang runs on seasonal facts: when the great road opens, when the snow starts, when the poplars turn. This board holds the current state of each, re-checked against official sources every season.
Explore the guide ↓Updated each season · checked against official sources
- The road
- Duku highway
- The snow
- Altai
- The gold
- Tarim poplars
- The rule
- Check, then book
What changes, and what does not.
Xinjiang's travel calendar is ruled by a handful of annual events: the opening and closing of the Duku highway, the start and end of the Altai ski season, the two-week poplar colour window on the Tarim rim, and the access status of mountain routes and border zones. None of these follow a fixed date — each shifts with the weather and the year's administrative decisions — and each one sits under its journey pages as a planning constraint.
This board is deliberately an evergreen page, not a news feed: each entry states what is stable from year to year (the shape of the season), what varies (the exact dates), and where the authoritative source sits. We re-check every entry before each season and before any client books around it.
Current entries.
Each entry links to a full page with the season's detail.
Altai snow report
The ski season's shape: which resort opens first, when the deep powder starts, and how village access behaves in storm cycles.
The poplar forecast
The Tarim rim's gold window shifts with the autumn — we track the reports and time the oases journeys around it. Full note coming with the autumn batch.
Access notes
Valley closures, border-zone permits and peak-approval status are confirmed per journey at enquiry — never promised on the strength of last year's rules.