Depending on which direction you’re going Taxkorgan (sometimes spelled Tashkorgan) is either your first stop in Xinjiang, China or a final goodbye.

Most foreigners these days are welcomed to Xinjiang with open arms. There is, however, a list of foreigners – both past and present – who will forever be scorned in the Xinjiang history books. This is the Xinjiang Most-Wanted Foreigners List.

It’s amazing to me that the crumbling mud walls of this ancient town outside Turpan was once a vibrant city along the Silk Road. Gaochang, also known as “Kharakhoja”, was once a capital of the region for both Han and Uyghur kingdoms.

A short distance south of Xinjiang’s capital of Urumqi there is a portion of beautiful land known as Nanshan, or “South Mountains”. For years tourist and locals have traveled away from the noisy, polluted city life seeking the peaceful scenery that Nanshan provides, but soon they will have an entirely different reason to visit: a new luxury golf course.

Are you hoping to make a trip out to Xinjiang sometime in the next couple of years? If not…you should!… but if you are planning a trip I’d like to point you to a new section of the FarWestChina website that I am proud to unveil…the Xinjiang Travel Resources!

This week I’m continuing my Top 5 series on Xinjiang travel with a new guest, Glen Russell. Today Glen shares with us some of his memories of Xinjiang and a few beautiful photos you don’t want to miss!

Xinjiang’s Gobi March, part of a series of four desert races, has been named by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 Endurance Competitions in the world. The following is a photo essay of the June 2010 race including quotes from those who both participated and volunteered.

On July 23rd, 2010, a Uyghur journalist, activist and blogger named Gheyret Niyaz was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Mainstream media has focused its stories on the harsh sentence handed down by the Chinese court, but what exactly was he accused of doing?

There are quite a number of people, especially those with political agendas, who claim an intimate understanding of the region’s history, but very few would be qualified to compile it into a book. Thankfully the author of Eurasian Crossroads is not only qualified, he also brings to the table a very objective and apolitical view of Xinjiang.

As the competitors ran, walked, hobbled and limped across the finish line, there were cheers everywhere, but also a lot of tears. A lot. (And a strange feast of food and beer at 10 a.m. because after 250 km, there are a lot of people who just want a cold one)