The Most Beautiful Places in Xinjiang
6 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Xinjiang are Karakul Lake, Khan Tengri and Jiaohe Ruins (Yarkhoto). The list covers 6 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Xinjiang is China's largest region, a land of basins and mountain walls: the Altai in the north, the Tian Shan across the middle and the Pamir and Kunlun to the southwest, with the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin and the Turpan Depression among them. Meltwater from the high ranges feeds alpine lakes and oases, and the oasis towns along the edges of the deserts were stations of the Silk Road for many centuries.
High in the eastern Pamir, Karakul Lake lies beside the massive snow dome of Muztagh Ata, reflecting the mountains in its cold water. In the Tian Shan, Sayram Lake is a large blue alpine lake surrounded by grassland and forest. In the far north, Kanas Lake fills a long glacial valley in the Altai, its water changing colour from green to milky blue.
The region's history appears in Jiaohe, the ruins of an ancient city near Turpan built on a narrow plateau between two river channels. Much of it was carved downward into the earth rather than built up, and it was once the capital of the Jushi kingdom. Near Kashgar, Shipton's Arch is one of the tallest natural arches in the world, hidden in a remote range of eroded rock and named after the mountaineer Eric Shipton, who described it in the 1940s.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karakul Lake | Lake | |
| 2 | Khan Tengri | Mountain | |
| 3 | Jiaohe Ruins (Yarkhoto) | Archaeological site | ✓ |
| 4 | Sayram Lake | Lake | |
| 5 | Kanas Lake | Lake | |
| 6 | Shipton's Arch | Natural arch |
01 Karakul Lake
People's Republic of China38.446° N 75.054° E
Jialiang Gao , www.peace-on-earth.org · CC BY-SA 3.0 High on the Pamir plateau in far western China, Karakul Lake reflects the snowfields of Muztagh Ata, 7,546 metres high, and Kongur Tagh, 7,649 metres, in water that shifts from dark green to azure. Its name means "black lake" in the Turkic languages of the region.
Did you know? In 1980 a team led by Ned Gillette skied up and down Muztagh Ata, the first ski ascent of any mountain above 7,500 metres.
02 Khan Tengri
People's Republic of China42.211° N 80.175° E
Jaan Künnap · CC BY-SA 4.0 Khan Tengri stands where Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and China meet, and for mountaineers it is the most beautiful peak of the Tian Shan — a steep, near-symmetrical pyramid of marble sheathed in snow.
Did you know? The first ascent from the northern, Kazakh side was made in 1964 by a team led by M. Kuzmin.
03 Jiaohe Ruins (Yarkhoto)
People's Republic of China · 8.4 km from Turpan42.951° N 89.064° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Acstar · CC BY-SA 3.0 Jiaohe is a city with no walls, because it never needed them. It sits on a long, narrow island of loess plateau, about 1,650 metres long and at most 300 metres wide, between two river channels that split and rejoin around it, and its edges drop more than 30 metres in sheer cliffs on every side.
Did you know? Courtyard houses combined three levels of living space: a flat roof for sleeping on summer nights, ground-floor rooms and cool underground chambers.
04 Sayram Lake
People's Republic of China44.598° N 81.165° E
lwtt93 from Shanghai, China · CC BY 2.0 High in the northern Tian Shan, less than fifty kilometres from the Kazakh border, a vast blue lake lies in a basin of grassland ringed by snow peaks.
Did you know? Its water is slightly brackish, of the sulphate type, with a salinity of about 2.85 grams per litre and a pH of around 8.8.
05 Kanas Lake
People's Republic of China48.815° N 87.040° E
Newbamboo · CC BY-SA 4.0 Kanas Lake lies in a deep, forested valley of the Altai Mountains at the far northern tip of Xinjiang, close to where China meets Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
Did you know? According to local legend, a huge 'big red fish' haunts the depths; some scientists suggest sightings may be shoals of taimen moving together rather than single animals.
06 Shipton's Arch
People's Republic of China39.660° N 75.524° E
LoudNotes at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 British mountaineer Eric Shipton found this arch in 1947 while serving as consul in Kashgar, after months of being turned back by a maze of near-identical canyons whenever he tried approaching from the south.
Did you know? The arch is made of conglomerate, a rock of pebbles and stones cemented together, and stands at an altitude of about 2,970 metres.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Xinjiang?
- On our list, Karakul Lake ranks first, followed by Khan Tengri and Jiaohe Ruins (Yarkhoto).
- How was Jiaohe built?
- Much of the ancient city was excavated from the loess of its plateau rather than built with added materials. Streets and buildings were cut downward into the ground, with walls left standing where the earth was not removed.
- What is Shipton's Arch?
- It is a very tall natural rock arch in the mountains near Kashgar. It is named after the British mountaineer Eric Shipton, who first described it after an expedition in the 1940s.
- Which mountain stands above Karakul Lake?
- Muztagh Ata, a broad, glaciated peak of more than 7,500 metres in the eastern Pamir, rises beside the lake.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Xinjiang?
- In our collection, the places in Xinjiang are most often lakes (3), mountains (1), rock formations (1) and natural arches (1).
- How many places are on this list in Xinjiang?
- The list covers 6 places.