In Frame
The northern autumn, in gold
For about three weeks a year northern Xinjiang becomes the most photogenic temperate forest in Asia — and almost nobody outside China books it.
Hemu is the reason to come: a Tuva village of log cabins in a valley that fills with ground fog on any calm, cold morning between late September and mid-October. Kanas Lake, Baihaba and the Burqin river terraces fill the rest of the route. We keep two nights at Hemu specifically so a failed fog morning is not a wasted trip.
- Hemu village fog at sunrise from the platform
- Cabin smoke and horses in the valley
- Kanas Lake bends and birch forest
- Baihaba border village at dusk
- Burqin river terraces and desert edge
- Milky Way over the Altay ridgeline
