This past Dragon Boat Long weekend from May 28-31, 2 groups of us totalling to 32 people myself included, embarked on an odyssey to China’s most far flung province in the Northwest, Xinjiang Uygur Automonus Region.

This would be my 4th trip to Xinjiang in the past 3 years. I fell in love with this region for its diversity in landscape, and culture on my first backpacking trip in 2006 when I spent 2 months traveling from North to South covering most tourist destinations, and beyond. This time, we have decided to take advantage of some really great airline promotions and went to only the Heavenly Lake and Turpan for 3.5 days. When I did the same trip last year, quite a few came back to me and said that their trip to Xinjiang was the highlight of their travel experience in China. This year, the feedback had been equally positive. Read the rest of this entry »