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Our next few days were spent in another area of the Kanas Geopark at the Hemu Village which is located in Burqin County, Altay District, about 30 kilometers east of Kanas Lake. It is a small village inhabited by Kazakhs and Tuwa people. There has been a number of lodge type hotels constructed a...

More photos from the Kanas Geopark area. The first days of the tour have been amazing. Not even really knowing where we were going and only researching the region once we arrived using Google maps and then getting an idea of where we were was a completely new and wonderful experience from...

After a very relaxing night in the mountain village and another breakfast in a yurt we were back on the bus for a drive through the mountains to the Kanas Geopark. At this time we are right in the Northwest corner of China and reasonably close to Russia, Mongolia and Kazakstan. The park...

A few more photos from my phone that I don't have on my laptop. Mask wearing for sun protection. Very common with women in China these days.

We had a fantastic evening with plenty of time to wander around the area. Still many local herdsmen going about their daily routines with sheep, cattle and horses driven through the streets. An excellent local dinner in a yurt. The valley was filled with wildflowers and very picturesque.

A long but wonderful scenic drive from Rainbow Beach to our overnight hotel in Burquin County. The changing scenery along the way was always spectacular often changing from desert, to meadows, mountain passes and back to desert within a few hours dependent on which side of the mountains you were...

Rainbow Beach or Seven Colours Beach was our next viewing point. As with many Chinese scenic areas there is an entrance fee to visit. The areas are usually quite large and offer opportunities to walk large distances and we had plenty of time to explore at our own pace. We visited in the middle...

Breakfast early on the train and then transferred onto a bus at Beitunshi Station. A few hours driving toward the next scenic spot. Again mostly semi arid with regular agricultural areas around water sources and under irrigation. Interestingly that although Xinjiang has a number of rivers fed...

There were a few areas where my wife and I were prohibited for visiting as only Chinese passport holder were allowed. We were taken to different locations in a small group with a few others who held other passports. There were other check points where we had to alight from our bus to be checked...

A few google maps locations of the areas we visited. They are in no particular order but they just came up together on my screen shots as I was posting.

After the canyon and dinner we were back on the train for an overnight trip to Atlay prefecture. Although we often boarded the train later in the evenings after dinner with China only having one time zone there was still plenty of daylight to experience the view for the first few hours of each...

Karamay station and onto the bus for our first scenic stop. Dushanzi Grand Canyon. I had no preconceived idea of what we would see on this trip as the itinerary was all in Mandarin and my wife did all of the organising. I just sat back and waited to be surprised by the amazing natural beauty of...

From Urumqi to Karamay was our first journey on the train. The terrain was mostly semi arid or desert but there were numerous areas that had been vegetated under irrigation along the way. There were many areas of solar farms and large amounts of power line construction in most areas we visited.

After a very early breakfast on day 2 we were picked at hotel and transferred to Urumqi station for the 5 hour train journey to our first scenic destination. Dushanzi Grand Canyon. Urumqi station. The infrastructure in all the large cities in Xinjiang has been rapidly expanding. Inside...

The 14 night trip was virtually all inclusive and covered 5 night sleeping on the train, hotels, admission to all the sites and most meals. Day 1 consisted of an afternoon flight 5 hour flight from Shenyang to Urumqi and a night in an Urumqi hotel. Taoxian airport Shenyang. Arriving in...

Very late on this TR as we have just returned to Australia again after an extensive year of travel. We have probably spent around 7 months on the road and sea this year. This particular TR covers 14 days in the middle of a much longer trip that included a cruise from Brisbane to Vancouver...

We are heading for KL soon and will be joined there by friends from China. Malaysia now have a digital arrival card and because our friends are not very tech savvy I was planning on doing theirs for them. We arrive earlier and will wait landside at the airport for them. I have previously done...

Spotted this from our bus in Chengdu a few days ago.

I purchased some bonus point wine last week. 12 bottles of Warramunda Liv Zac Block One Cabernet Franc Blend 2020 @ $360. 18,000 bonus points 2 x Bottles of Thorn Clarke Ron Thorn Barrel Select Barossa Shiraz 2019 @ $125 each. 12,000 bonus points. Total cost would have been $549 after my 10%...

You can definitely get a tourist visa without an invite letter or business requirement. You just need to supply copies of your air tickets and hotel bookings etc. If you book refundable hotels it is easy to cancel once visa is granted and then travel more independently. There is a requirement...