Visit Xinjiang & the West of China, China

The far western provinces of China, at the fringes of the country, feel a world away from the modern metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai.

The people here are distinctive — many of them are Muslims Uighurs — and the faces you see on the streets will look markedly different to those in the towns and cities in the rest of China.

Scenically the region is distinct too, with the vast Taklamakan Desert giving way to the craggy Tian Shan mountains near the borders with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.