YILI (LLI VALLEY)
It is a rich farming valley which has Yining City as its capital, 60 km east of the Kazakhstan border and 400 km northwest of Urumqi. This area (not directly part of the Silk Road) is less popular with tourists than other parts of Xinjiang, but a visit here is worthwhile and provides a different insight into the province than is available elsewhere in Xinjiang.
Lli Valley is one of Xinjiang's three Kazakh Autonomous Prefectures. Although this is traditionally a Kazakh district, the Uygur people are the dominant group here today. In Lli and Yining, more so than anywhere else in China, open hostility to the Chinese is evident. This is largerly due to local residents' memories of the forced exodus of Kazakhs and Uygurs to the USSR in the 1960s.
The local people have a very distinct way of life which can be experinced at the huge Uygur market in Yining, where locals trade all kinds of weird, wonderful and colorful goods. The apple orchards outside the city itself are usually filled with locals picking and eating too. Between July and August there is a mass exodus of Kazakhs to Saryam Lake, a three hour bus ride from the city. During this time, the area around this spectacular lake is filled with locals who come for the Naadam Fair where they buy and sell handicrafts and take part in local festivities and games including a rather bizarre sport known as "sheep polo"!
Yining itself, is an industrialized though prosperous city and although there are few obvious sights of interest within the city, the Russian influence in much of the architecture here is impressive and unusual. The Russians marched into Yining in 1871 and remained until 1949, when they were forced out by the Chinese. Old Russian style homes, with carved window frames and painted shutters, still decorate and small back streets around the city.
