Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region is one of the most exciting parts of China, an extraordinary terrain, more than 3000km from any coast, which, despite all the historical upheavals since the collapse of the Silk Road trade, still comprises the same old oasis settlements strung out along the ancient routes, many still producing the silk and cotton for which they were famed in Roman times. For travellers, the classic illustration of Xinjiang's remoteness from the rest of China is the extraordinary fact that officially the region's clocks are set to the same time as those in Beijing - in Kashgar, in the far west of the region, this means that in summer the sun rises at 9am or 10am and sets around midnight.

Highlights of Xinjiang include the Tian Shan mountain pastures outside Ürümqi, where you can hike in rare solitude and stay beside Heaven Lake with Kazakhs in their yurts; but it is the old Silk Road that will attract most travellers. The most fascinating of the Silk Road oasis cities are Turpan and Kashgar , both redolent of old Turkestan, and it is now possible to follow not only the northern Silk Road from Turfan to Kashgar via Aksu and Kuqa, but also the almost forgotten southern route via Khotan. For more intrepid travellers, there's also the possibility of continuing the Silk Road journey out beyond the borders of China itself - not only over the relatively well-established Karakoram Highway into Pakistan, but now also over the less well-known routes into Kazakhstan and Kirgyzistan. Finally, there exists an exciting if perilous road from Kashgar into western Tibet, a route officially closed to tourists.

Geographically, Xinjiang - literally "New Territories" - occupies an area slightly greater than Western Europe or Alaska, and yet its population is just thirteen million. By far the largest minority in Xinjiang is the Uigur, though there are also some dozen other Central Asian minority populations. Xinjiang is perhaps the least "Chinese" of all parts of the People's Republic, in spite of the fact that the Han population is steadily creeping towards fifty percent of the whole.

The Uigur people (pronounced Weeg-yur), despite centuries of domination by China, remain ethnically and culturally entirely distinct from the Han Chinese. They are the easternmost branch of the extended family of Turkic peoples who inhabit most of Central Asia, and the language they speak is essentially a dialect of Turkish. Although there has been some racial mingling down the centuries, many Uigurs look decidedly un-Chinese - stockily built, bearded, with brown hair and round eyes. For at least a thousand years they have been overwhelmingly Muslim, and religion remains the focus of their identity in the face of relentless Han penetration.

The Uigurs are not in a particularly happy situation. As they are for the most part unable to speak Chinese and therefore unable to attend university or find well-paid work, their prospects for self-improvement inside the People's Republic are generally bleak. Perhaps as a consequence of this, they seem at times to extend their mistrust of Han Chinese to all foreigners, tourists included. Nevertheless, gestures such as drinking tea with them, or trying a few words of their language, will help to break down the barriers, and invitations to Uigur homes frequently follow.

The land of Xinjiang is among the least hospitable in all China, covered for the most part by arid desert and mountain . Essentially, it can be thought of as two giant basins, both surrounded on all sides by mountains. The range lying between the two basins is the Tian Shan (Heavenly Mountains), which effectively bisects Xinjiang from west to east across the middle. The basin to the north is known as the Junggar Basin , or Jungaria. The capital of Xinjiang, and only major city, Ürümqi , is here, on the very southern edge of the basin, as is the heavily Kazakh town of Yining , right up against the border with Kazakhstan. The Junggar Basin has been subject to fairly substantial Han settlement over the past forty years, with a degree of industrial and agricultural development. It remains largely grassland, with large state farms in the centre and Kazakh and Mongol herdsmen (still partially nomadic) in the mountain pastures on the fringes. The climate is not particularly hot in summer, and virtually Siberian from October through to March. To the south is the Tarim Basin , dominated by the scorching Taklamakan Desert, where the weather is fiercely hot and dry in summer. This is where the bulk of the Uigur population lives, in strings of oases (Turpan and Kashgar among them) scattered along the old routes of the Silk Road. Some of these oasis cities are buried in the desert and long forgotten; others survive on irrigation using water from the various rivers and streams that flow from surrounding mountains. As well as forgotten cities, these sands also cover another buried treasure - oil . Chinese estimates reckon that three times the proven US reserves of oil are under the Taklamakan alone.