Kalajun Grassland

Kalajun sits on a plateau above the Tekes valley, a landscape of long smooth ridges covered in grass with spruce filling the gullies between them, and it is included in the Xinjiang Tian Shan UNESCO natural listing as an example of the range's meadow zone. The scale is what makes it: ridge after ridge of pasture running to snow peaks, with Kazakh herders and their flocks on it through the summer and yurt camps at the road ends. Snow-fed streams cut the plateau, horse riding is the usual way to cross it, and cloud shadows moving over the ridges are the standard photograph.

What you actually see

• The ridged pasture - long grass ridges running toward snow peaks.
• The spruce gullies - dark conifer filling the folds between ridges.
• The herder camps - Kazakh yurts and flocks through the summer.
• The horse trails - riding routes across the plateau.

When to go

June to September, with the greenest grass and flowers in June and July; autumn turns the grass gold. Winter is deep snow and the plateau closed. Nights are cold at over 2,000 metres.

Honest expectations

Entry plus shuttle costs add up and internal transport is compulsory. Facilities are yurt camps with basic bedding and no heating. Rain and cloud are common and roads turn to mud.

Nearby

Tekes and its eight-trigram town plan lie north; Narat is east.