The Taklamakan fills the middle of the Tarim basin in southern Xinjiang: a sea of sand dunes roughly a thousand kilometres across, ringed by the oasis towns on the old Silk Road - Kashgar, Yarkand, Hotan, Kuqa, Korla, Turpan - and crossed by a single paved highway with petrol stations and nothing else. It is one of the driest and most remote places in China, and the emptiness is the attraction.
The desert and its edges
The dunes are not static; they move with the prevailing wind, and the height and spacing of the ridges change across the basin. At the margins, where rivers from the mountains reach the sand, there are belts of desert poplar, tamarisk and reed, and the villages that depend on them. Several of the oasis towns have developed desert recreation areas on their outskirts - dune buggies, sandboarding, camel rides, and in some cases camps with tents and a kitchen - and the trips out to the big dunes are usually half a day or a night.
The night sky
Because almost nobody lives in the basin, there is effectively no light pollution. On a clear, moonless night the Milky Way is a solid band across the sky, and the stars are visible down to the horizon in every direction. Winter nights are the clearest and the coldest, with temperatures well below freezing; summer nights are warm but hazy with dust. Plan around the moon: a full moon washes out the faint stars but lights the dunes beautifully, and a new moon gives you the sky but a very dark landscape. Bring a head torch with a red setting, and expect the sand to be cold underfoot at dawn.
Practical notes
Organised dune trips and overnight camps run from most oasis towns on the rim, and they are the sensible way to do this if you do not have your own vehicle and local knowledge. Water is the limiting factor: take more than you think you need, and never walk away from the vehicle without telling someone your route and turning back. Sand gets into everything, so protect cameras and phones. Because the highway across the basin is long and services are far apart, fuel and water should be filled at every opportunity, and travel outside the marked routes requires a guide.
