10 Days in Yining

The blue-washed old quarter is best taken slowly — a clattering horse-drawn hadek cart, courtyard doors painted every colour of blue, and courtyard teas to finish.

1. yining kazanqi district

Liuxing Street's six-spoke plan dates to the 1930s; the accordion museum keeps more than 800 instruments, and the Lin Zexu Memorial recalls the commissioner's Ili years in the 1840s.

1. yining liuxing street
2. yining accordion museum
3. yining lin zexu memorial

An honest cross-prefecture day — the 2011 Guozigou bridge spans a valley on deck pilings some 200 metres high, then Sayram's 458 square kilometres of lake sit at 2,071 metres in Bortala.

1. yining guozigou bridge
2. sayram lake

Mid-June turns Huocheng's fields violet (other seasons bring orchards and vine rows), and the bazaars restock dried fruit and naan.

1. huocheng lavender
2. yining city bazaars

Three-odd hours east to Xinyuan county; overnight near the Nalati gate so tomorrow starts on the high meadows at first light.

1. nalati grassland

The "sky meadows" roll above 1,800 metres — horse loops between yurts, spruce margins and the long grass the valley is named for.

1. nalati grassland

South across the hills to Tekes county, whose streets radiate in the eight-trigram bagua pattern laid out in the 1930s — the centre's lookout makes sense of it all.

1. tekes bagua city

Rolling grass benches cut by terraced river cliffs, UNESCO-listed in 2013 as part of the Xinjiang Tianshan natural property.

1. kalajun grassland

Back in town, the prefecture museum and the Han princesses' memorial (about 2,100 years ago) fill the afternoon.

1. yining museum
2. yining han princesses memorial
3. yining city bazaars

A final sunset at the 1975 bridge, then the flight or the road north to Urumqi.

1. yining ili river bridge