Had a good sleep last night and packed now for the next 4 hours on the road. I had a brief encounter with a Thai couple who is also travelling in China, in a tour bus. The world is getting more interconnected.
Looking at the weather forecast, I might hit some rain at the end and it is getting cloudy here as well. Will report after I arrived in Bole.
The highway to Bole was quite an interesting trip, partially absolutely flat desert, sand dunes desert with some brushes and then wide agricultural areas with green fields as far the eyes can see while to the south the snowcapped mountains are not too far away. It was a bit cloudy with some light drizzling rain between ant temperature around 32°C which feels not as warm as back in steamy Thailand. Had another security check at a smaller exit from the highway, which took a bit longer. I guess, they did not see too many foreigners there, but all friendly with a lot of woah and good, when they worked off a list of questions they had looked up. Made group pictures at the end and off I went again. I arrived from the east in Bole and was greeted with wide boulevards, green parks left and right, and it became quickly clear, that Bole is a big garrison for the military forces stationed here. It’s definitely a modern bigger town with high rise apartment blocks and wide roads. Used the afternoon to visit a museum, which nicely presented the history of the region and this western province. While it was not part of the early Silkroad routes and became later an alternative Northern Silkroad route to reach what is now Kazakhstan and Russia. It is now the main trade flow artery to the West with trains and 8 lane highways.
Here is a brief summary of this place:
Bole (博乐 / Bortala) — A Snapshot
The Name
From Mongolian boro tala — “brown steppe”. Apt for a city sitting in the Dzungarian Basin between the Dzungarian Alatau and Borohoro Mountains.
History in Brief
– Tang Dynasty (7th–10th c.): The Chinese empire established the Shuanghe Protectorate here, a frontier garrison to control the northern Silk Road approaches.
– Yuan & Ming (13th–17th c.): The region was firmly Oirat Mongol territory — the westernmost of the Mongol confederations, who would later produce the Dzungar Khanate.
– Qing Dynasty (18th c.): After crushing the Dzungars, the Qing resettled Chahar Mongols from Kalgan (Zhangjiakou) and Torghut Oirats returning from the Volga — a remarkable migration of a people who trekked back east to escape Russian encroachment.
– PRC (1954): The Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture was formally established on July 13, 1954, with Bole as its capital.
Current Status
– Population: ~270,000 in the city proper (2015); ~475,000 in the whole prefecture
– Demographics: Despite the “Mongol Autonomous” designation, only ~5.5% are ethnic Mongol. Han Chinese make up ~65%, with Uyghur, Kazakh, Hui, and 31 other ethnic groups.
– Economy: Anchored by Alashankou (阿拉山口) — the border crossing into Kazakhstan. This is no sleepy checkpoint: it handles 90% of all Xinjiang’s import/export volume and is the second-busiest land port in all of China (after Manzhouli on the Russian border). It’s a key node on the New Eurasian Land Bridge (the “New Silk Road” rail corridor linking Lianyungang on China’s Pacific coast all the way to Rotterdam).
– Transport: The Northern Xinjiang Railway and highways connect Bole to Ürümqi. Alashankou is both a rail and road port of entry.
Trivia & Highlights
– Sayram Lake (赛里木湖): Less than 50 km from the Kazakhstan border sits Xinjiang’s largest and highest alpine lake — 458 km² at 2,070 m elevation. Fed by glacial meltwater, it’s nicknamed the “Clean Sea” (净海) historically. Designated a AAAAA National Scenic Area in 2021, it’s a stunning turquoise splash in an otherwise arid landscape. The name comes from Kazakh, meaning “blessing.”
– Ebi-Nur: The prefecture’s other major lake, and one of the saltiest and most rapidly shrinking lakes in Central Asia.
– Notable native: Nur Bekri (努尔·白克力), who served as Chairman (governor) of Xinjiang from 2007–2014 and later headed the National Energy Administration — until his fall from grace in a 2019 corruption case.
– Climate extremes: Bole straddles the line between cool arid and semi-arid — brutally freezing winters, very warm summers, and precipitation that comes almost entirely in summer. Classic Dzungarian continental.
– 35 nationalities in one prefecture — it’s a genuine crossroads where Turkic, Mongolic, and Sinic worlds collide, and has been for well over a millennium.
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