7-Day Self-Drive Around the Junggar Basin: A Geological Epic Across Half of China

Have you ever seen such a land?
On the left are flame-like rolling colorful hills, as if God spilled a palette;
On the right is the Red Mountain Canyon, carved like with knives and axes, wind-eroded rock layers resembling the spine of an ancient giant beast;
And ahead, in a hundred-mile no-man’s land, an abandoned underground mine quietly opens its mouth,
As if whispering a national secret sealed for 60 years.

This is not a sci-fi movie,
This is the geological journey I just completed around the Junggar Basin—
A 7-day, 2800-kilometer trip,
Seeing Xinjiang’s most hardcore landforms and industrial memories in a “textbook of the earth.”

It doesn’t try to be cute, doesn’t use filters, nor cater to check-in trends,
But it lets you truly understand:
What it means to be “the lifeline of China’s resources,” and what an “epic written by the earth” really is.

📍 Route Overview
Urumqi → Five Color Bay (Qitai) → Koktokay → Burqin → Urho Devil City → Dushanzi Grand Canyon → Shawan → Return to Urumqi
🗓 Recommended Duration: 7-8 days｜⛰️ Mineral relics · Colorful hills · Secret canyons｜💰 Budget: 5000–6500 RMB/person
📅 Best Season: May – October (stable weather, good road conditions, strong light ideal for photography)

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🌄【Day 1-2】Urumqi → Five Color Bay → Koktokay｜From “Fire and Earth” to “Cold Metal”

✅ First Stop: Five Color Bay Flaming Mountains & Petrified Wood Park
- The surface of Flaming Mountains shows red and orange hues due to mineral oxidation, flowing like lava at sunrise
- The Petrified Wood Park is scattered with a “stone forest” billions of years old, the oldest tree over 200 million years

📷 Photo Highlights:
- Wide-angle shots capturing the “petrified wood + colorful hills + wilderness” trio
- Use a polarizing filter to enhance rock layer texture contrast

✅ Continue north to Fuyun County · Koktokay (about 6 hours by car)
- Here lies one of New China’s most important secret places—the No. 3 Mine Pit

🎯 Must-Visit Experience:
- Enter Koktokay National Geopark and overlook the world’s rare giant mine pit (140 meters deep, spiral-shaped)
- Listen to the guide explain: “The lithium, beryllium, and tantalum produced here once repaid 1.3 billion yuan of Soviet foreign debt”
- Visit the Ayiguz Mine, wear a helmet and go 80 meters underground to touch the mineral vein cross-section

🏡 Stay at Koktokay town guesthouse｜with floor heating｜about 400 RMB/night

📌 Fun Fact: Koktokay is not a sea; it means “green forest” in Kazakh, yet it is China’s rare metal hometown.

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🌊【Day 3-4】Koktokay → Burqin → Urho｜From Mineral Sources to Yardang

✅ Drive along the Irtysh River to Burqin
- The only river in Xinjiang flowing into the Arctic Ocean, with rapid summer currents and birch forests along the banks

✅ Arrive in the afternoon at Urho World Devil City
- Cretaceous sedimentary rocks eroded by wind form “ancient castle clusters,” howling like ghosts and wolves when the wind blows
- Must ride the scenic area’s small train into the core zone and hear the guide tell the “dinosaur graveyard” legend

📸 Golden Photography Moments:
- Shoot Yardang silhouettes one hour before sunset, combined with drone shots of the “Sea of Death” textures
- Try star trail time-lapse at night, with the Milky Way spanning above Devil City

🏨 Stay at Karamay Urho District hotel｜about 380 RMB/night

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🏞️【Day 5-6】Urho → Dushanzi Grand Canyon → Shawan｜Cutting into the Earth’s Wound

✅ Head to Dushanzi Grand Canyon (one of Xinjiang’s most beautiful canyons)
- Tianshan snowmelt carved a 200-meter-deep rift, with emerald-green river water
- Cliffside trails are thrilling, with many spots for “people standing on the edge of the abyss” shots

📷 Highly Recommended:
- Use telephoto compression to capture “Dushanzi refinery steam and canyon mist together,” a dialogue between industry and nature
- Snap moments of herders riding horses along the valley bottom paths

✅ Last stop: Shawan City (stopover)
- Restock and refresh, must eat an authentic Shawan big plate chicken—potatoes soft and glutinous, chili fragrant but not overpowering

🚘 Return to Urumqi on Day 7, completing the loop

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✅ Budget Breakdown (per person｜for deep self-driving):

Item Cost
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Round-trip transport (air/train to Urumqi) ¥800–1500
Car rental (SUV off-road with driver/guide) ¥3500
Accommodation (7 nights average ¥450) ¥3150
Tickets + insurance + supplies + photography materials ¥850
Total ¥5000–6500

> 💬 Note: If carpooling with multiple people and traveling in the off-season, costs can be controlled around ¥4800.

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🌟 Why is this route called the “China Geological Museum”?

✅ Complete landforms: colorful hills, petrified wood, granite peak forests, wind-eroded yardang, cut canyons all in one
✅ Historical depth: from prehistoric life to modern industry, a walking “natural resources course”
✅ Stunning photo rate: every 100 kilometers changes the color tone, your phone album becomes a documentary cover
✅ Niche hardcore with no tourists: almost no tour groups throughout, perfect for those who truly love the earth

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📌 Action Suggestions:

🎯 If you are:
- A geology enthusiast or traveler with a science/engineering background → this route’s information density rivals a university elective
- A photography player pursuing ultimate light and composition contrast → Junggar is your ultimate shooting location
- A parent wanting to give children “outdoor geography enlightenment” → a hundred times more vivid than textbooks

🔥 Best Travel Tips:
- June to September is best, large day-night temperature difference, be sure to bring windproof and warm jackets
- Some sections are unpaved roads, four-wheel drive vehicles recommended
- Respect mining area rules, no drones in no-fly zones

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Along this journey,
You won’t see trendy filters,
But you can touch the earth’s bones,
Hear the heartbeat of the mountains,
Even pick up a stone,
And know it once upheld a nation’s dignity.

This is not just a self-drive,
It is a pilgrimage to the earth.