Since 1949 Xinjiang, litterally translated as New Territory has been China's most western province. The area has a recorded history of 2 millenium BCE and has been claimed territory by numerous groups. Starting in Kashgar which is an ancient city west of the Taklamakan Desert at the feet of the Tian Shan mountain range we travelled along the southern silk road, across the desert and back to the provincial capital of Ulumuqi.

Kashgar has been noted from ancient times as a political and commercial centre. The Kashgar oasis is where both the northern and southern routes from China around the Taklamakan Desert converge. It is also almost directly north of Tashkurgan through which traffic passed from the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Gandhara, in what is now Pakistan, and Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

About 200 km west of the present city, just past the present border with Kyrgyzstan, the main Silk Road crossed into the head of the Alay Valley from where relatively easy routes led southwest to Balkh or northwest to Ferghana. The present main road now travels northwest through the Torugart pass

The area has is an autonomous region and has been the center of many discident movements. The chinese central government has been moving Han into the region mostly to work for the petrolium industry as the area is China's largest reserve of natural gas. The 2000 year old mud brick buildings in Kashgar and surounding towns have started to be torn down in favor of concrete construtions. People have been relocated and much of this ancient city is being modernized at an amazing rate.