Reaching across in a giant arc from the fringes of eastern
Siberia to the borders of Turkic Central Asia, the provinces of
Inner Mongolia , Ningxia , Gansu ,
Qinghai and Xinjiang account for an entire third of
China's land area. Compressing so vast a region into a few pages
may seem something of a travesty - but at least it is based on a
perception that originates from China itself, that these
territories lie largely beyond the Great Wall. To ancient Chinese
thinking the whole region is remote, subject to extremes of weather
and populated by non-Chinese-speaking "barbarians" who are, quite
literally, the peoples from beyond the pale - zai wai ren.
It is here, thinly scattered through the vast areas of steppe and
grassland, desert and mountain plateau, that the bulk of China's
ethnic minorities still live. Out of deference to these,
Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Xinjiang are officially not provinces
at all, but so-called Autonomous Regions , for the Mongol,
Hui and Uigur peoples respectively.
However, a Chinese presence in the area is not new.
Imperial armies were already in control of virtually the whole
northwest region by the time of the Han dynasty two thousand years
ago and since then Gansu, Ningxia and the eastern part of Qinghai
have become Chinese almost to the core. The uncultivatable plains
of Inner Mongolia have been intimately bound up with China since
Genghis Khan created his great empire in the early thirteenth
century, and even Xinjiang - although it has repeatedly broken free
- has always found itself drawn back into the Chinese sphere.
Today the relatively unrestricted use of local languages
and local religions in all these areas can be taken as a
sign of China's desire to nurture patriotism in the minority
peoples, and regain some of the sympathy lost during disastrous
repressions both under communism and in previous eras. Furthermore,
in economic terms, there is a clear transfer of wealth, in the form
of industrial and agricultural aid, from the richer areas of
eastern China to the poorer, outer fringes of the country. On the
other hand, the degree of actual autonomy in the "autonomous"
regions is strictly controlled, and relations between Han China and
these more remote corners of the empire remain fractious in places.
Dissent on the part of the Uigurs of Xinjiang, for example,
has shown itself as recently as the large-scale city riots in
Kashgar in the 1990s.
Tourism in these areas has boomed in the last few years.
Travellers, above all, are drawn by the Silk Road , a series
of historic towns strung out across the desert, running from Xi'an
in Shaanxi Province, through Ningxia, Gansu and Xinjiang, and
eventually on into Central Asia. The Northwest also offers
possibilities for enjoying the last great remaining
wildernesses of China - the grasslands, mountains, lakes and
deserts of the interior - far from the teeming population centres
of the east. For this, there is perhaps no place better to start
than Inner Mongolia 's famous grasslands on which
Genghis Khan trained his cavalry and where nomads on horseback
still live today. As well as visiting the supposed tomb of
Genghis Khan , outside Dongsheng, it's also possible, in
places, to catch a glimpse of the Mongols' ancient and unique way
of life, packaged for tourists to a greater or lesser degree
depending on how far off the beaten track you are willing to
travel. You can sleep in a nomad's circular felt tent (a yurt),
sample Mongol food and ride a horse across the grasslands, all
within half a day's train journey from Beijing.
The other great natural feature of Inner Mongolia is the Yellow
River, which detours north into the region from tiny, rural
Ningxia . Here, at the resort of Shapotou , you can
witness the spectacle of a mighty river running between desert sand
dunes. Rarely visited by foreign tourists, Ningxia also offers
quiet, attractive cities and a variety of scenery ranging from
terraced, abundantly fertile hillsides in the south to pure desert
in the north. Extending west from here is Gansu , the
historic periphery of ancient China. This rugged terrain of high
mountains and deserts is spliced from east to west by the Hexi
Corridor , a narrow path through the mountains, historically
the only road from China to the West, and still marked along its
length by the Great Wall - terminating magnificently at the
fortress of Jiayuguan - and a string of Silk Road towns
culminating in Dunhuang , with its fabulous Buddhist cave
art.
South of the Hexi Corridor rise the mountains which extend all
the way to the plains of northern India. The ancient borderland
between the mountains and China proper is Qinghai , perhaps
the least-explored province in the whole of the Northwest, which
offers mountains, monasteries, the colossal lake of Qinghai
Hu and, above all, the road to Tibet , along one of the
highest mountain routes in the world. Originating in this province,
too, are the Yellow and Yangzi rivers, the main transport arteries
of China throughout recorded history.
Finally, guarding the westernmost passes of the empire, is
Xinjiang , where China ends and another world - once known
in the West as Chinese Turkestan - begins. Culturally and
geographically this vast, isolated region of searing deserts and
snowy mountains, the most arduous and dreaded section of the Silk
Road, is a part of Central Asia. Turkic Uigurs outnumber the Han
Chinese, mosques replace temples, and lamb kebabs replace steamed
dumplings. Highlights of Xinjiang include the desert resort town of
Turpan and, in the far west, fabled Kashgar , a city
that until recently few Westerners had ever reached.
Travel in the Northwest can still be hard going, with
enormous distances and an extremely harsh continental climate to
contend with. Winter is particularly severe, with average
temperatures as low as minus 15° or 20°C in Inner Mongolia, Qinghai
and Xinjiang. Conversely, in summer , Turpan in eastern
Xinjiang is China's hottest city. Despite the wild, rugged terrain
and the great distances, however, facilities for tourists have
developed considerably in recent years. In nearly all towns, there
are now hotels and restaurants catering for a range of
budgets - in general, the price of accommodation is a good deal
cheaper here than in eastern China. Where rail lines have not been
built, nearly everywhere is accessible by bus, and quite a few
towns by plane as well. Finally there is now the possibility of
onward travel to or from China's Asian neighbours - the Republic of
Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kirgyzistan and Pakistan can all be reached
by road or rail from the provinces covered in this chapter (though
remember that visas are generally required for all of these
countries and you may need to acquire these in Beijing or elsewhere
before setting out).