The Nalati Grassland in Xinyuan county of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is the second largest in China, and ranks as the fourth largest in the world. It is a breathtakingly beautiful spot, as yet pretty much off the tourist radar. The area, of course, is remote. In China you can almost not go further west than the Ili (often also spelled Yili) Prefecture. It has a foreign border of over 2000 km with Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia. Yili counts roughly four million inhabitants, of which 45% are Han, and 25% Kazakh.
Web links
Wikipedia page on the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture
Nalati Grassland photo album on People’s Daily (November 2012)
Spring in Nalati
Summer in Nalati
Autumn in County
Winter in Nalati
Nalati Ski Resort
