With its unique landscape, a large number of historical and cultural relics and folk customs, and the charming Silk Road, Xinjiang's tourism, has developed raidly. What's more, the improvement of transportation and infrastructure has promoted Xinjiang's tourism.
Xinjiang is well know for the expanse of its area and richness of natural resources, as well for its wonderful scenic spots and enchanting spectacles of nature. It covers all the six types of resources in the Criterion of General Investigation of Tourism Research in China. Except for vast stretches of grasslands and desert, the land of Xinjiang is very different in it's altitude, from the Turpan Aiding lake, the world's lowest land second only to the Dead Sea in Jordan, to the Qiao-gery peak (K2), the world's highest mountain second only to the Qomolang ma Peak, with the difference between the two places being 8785 meters! Within the territory of Xinjiang, there are a number of ancient city ruins, such as Gaochang Ancient City,the ruins of ancient Loulan kingdom, and the Site of Niya. The region has established 22 nature reserves. Its scenic spots include the Swan Lake of Bayinbuluk, Heavenly Lake of Tianshan Mountains, the Sayram Lake, the Kanas Lake and Ghost Castle as well as plenty of springs. Besides, the music and dances of different peoples since the ancient times are famous and these unique songs and dances are most attractive tourism resources of Xinjiang.
Xinjiang has the great potential for developing tourism industry. The ancient Silk Road, desert exploration, hiking, visiting the ethnic groups as well as geological exploration have developed gradually, which offer a promising prospect for boosting Xinjiang's tourism.
In recent years, the Xinjiang governments have made great efforts to better tourism infrastructure with the purpose of improving conditions for tourism, and new items have been started, such as eco-tourism, sightseeing to scenic spots and cultural relics and trekking along the ancient Silk Road. The ecological tourism will center on Kanas Lake, the scenic spots on the Heaven Lake and Bostan Lake, the cultural relics on Turpan, the folk customs on Kashigar and the natural attraction on Ili.
During the period of the 11th-five-year plan, with further adjustment of tourism resources, Xinjiang will focus on establishing some national or even world tourism attractions, and strengthen the cooperation with neighboring countries. Therefore, great attention will be paid to develop ice-snow tourism in winter, revolution-site tourism and special tourism. Tourism has become one of the pillar industries in northwest China-Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will take the lead in developing its tourism with its special resources and conditions, so as to boost it as one of the leading industries of the region.
