Search hotels in Xinjiang, China

Urumqi is very far and people there push to get their way, cut queue,no courtesy, dirty their country’s infrastructure, dirty toilet and a hassle to go through immigration. But Urumqi is a gateway to many other places in Xinjiang and some places have beautiful sceneries.

We stayed around the old town, which although quite touristy on the main laneways, its much less so on the side streets. It also supports it own hospital clinics and at least 2 schools that I could see, so its a self functioning community. Its not a Disney theme park. So were happy to use this area as a general base. Foreign visitors are seemingly not that common, especially once you're out into the wider city itself, but this is the case around most of Xinjiang I think. In our 5 days, I saw less than a dozen western foreigners. The people were very nice and friendly though. Somewhat shy, curious, but always polite, especially the kids.......... plus I didnt find the security services to be overly intrusive either. Again this was my experience everywhere we went in Xinjiang. Some of my best exchanges were with local people on the packed slow trains when we did several 2-hour intercity trips. These were not the fancy fast trains, but the old-fashioned slow ones. Unexpected gold. So to be honest, both these elements regards people and security were in very stark contrast to narratives in western news. Best of our Kashgar visit: 1] Our hotel, The Jianguo Hidden Hotel, was superb. 10/10 on every metric. 2] Taxi rides to the Old Town area from the airport and train station was around 5 USD. Plentiful, honest, and inexpensive wherever you went. 3] Old Town was great. I especially liked the Ironworks where you could buy handmade woks etc. Bar street was good fun too and the beer was good. If you like it cold, jeep asking til they get you one! 4] Nuran Restaurant. This is a wonderful place just outside the city walls near the Nth Gate I think. White linen service with well cooked food in a beautifully ornate room. 5] Kashgar Livestock Bazaar on Sundays [and maybe Thursdays as well]. Its more than you think it might be! 6] A trip to Lake Baisha or Karakul. This is a wonderful road trip. Just go [and check out the Red Mountain along the way]!!

Yining has a really cool market (6th street? A hexagonal market.) that we really enjoyed. Lots of folk walking around, dancing, singing, great street food. It has in interesting mix of central Asian and Han chinese culture, with different foods from most of China.

We went to Kashgar in 2008 and 2012, very nice Now it has become mass touristy, 95% Chinese People seem unhappy and with good reason as they cannot express their culture and religion and are looked upon as objects in a museum

Kashgar, located in the south of Xinjiang, China, has a long history and a strong humanistic atmosphere. Most of the Uighurs live here, which attracts many tourists because of its beautiful and unique architecture and local customs with national characteristics. Not only that, there are especially sweet and delicious fruits here, which are particularly economical. There are other special foods that are also very good, such as saute spicy chicken, kebabs, naan, yogurt zongzi, handmade ice cream and so on. There is an old saying in Xinjiang, "Look at the scenery in the north and the humanities in the south." In fact, Kashgar in southern Xinjiang also has vast natural scenery, but it is far from the urban area, so you need to rent a car or report to a tour group. The pace of life here is relatively slow, which is suitable for relaxing on vacation.