Tacheng — A Tatar Bakery on the Kazakh Border

Tacheng — Tarbagatai — sits in the far northwest of Xinjiang against the Kazakh border, and its distinction is demographic. It’s the centre of Tatar life in China: one of the smallest of the 56 recognised ethnic groups, numbering only a few thousand nationwide, most of them in and around this county.

They arrived from the Volga and Crimea, and the inheritance shows up in unexpected places — the architecture of a few older buildings, some family names, and above all the baking. Tatar bread and pastry are a real tradition here, and the town’s bakeries are the one thing everybody who visits mentions.

The town

Be realistic: not much happens in Tacheng. It’s a calm border county town with a steady trickle of Kazakh visitors from over the line, a couple of good bakeries, and some scattered Russian-influenced buildings.

Go to the bakery. Sit down with whatever the woman behind the counter recommends and a pot of tea. That’s the town, and it’s a genuinely pleasant hour.

The grasslands north of town

This is what the trip is for. Take a taxi north toward the Tarbagatai mountains and the pastures open up — long green slopes, streams, herds, and horizons that keep receding. It stands comparison with Jiangbulake, which is high praise for a place nobody has heard of.

The pastures are worked by Kazakh herders, and the hospitality follows the usual pattern — which is to say, someone will invite you in. On our visit we were offered tea and bread and stayed several hours, which is the standard outcome of walking past a yurt at the wrong time of day.

Budget a full day. There’s no itinerary to follow; you drive, you stop, you walk, and you accept the tea.

Two pieces of specific advice

Skip the border scenic area. There’s a ticketed viewpoint near the Kazakh frontier and it isn’t worth the fee — the views are ordinary and the whole thing is a formality.

Drive south instead. Head toward Bortala along the border and the landscape is far better, with Alakol — one of the largest lakes in Kazakhstan — visible across the line. It costs nothing and it’s the best scenery on this route.

Practical notes

Where to sleep: a couple of straightforward mid-range hotels in town. Nothing remarkable, all adequate.

What to eat:

• Tatar baking — the local speciality and the reason to make a point of it. Ask for the bakery everyone recommends; in a town this size, that’s sufficient direction.
• Breakfast — milk tea (奶茶), naan (馕), baked buns (烤包子)
• Later — plov (抓饭), home-style laghman (家常拉面), tomato and egg with peppers (西辣蛋)
• Street food — lamb skewers (烤肉串), cold jelly noodles (凉粉)

As everywhere in Xinjiang: the roadside stalls are as reliable as the restaurants. See our food guide.

When: June to September. The grass is up, the herders are on the high pasture, and the roads are open.

Nearby: Sayram Lake and Wenquan to the south, then the Ili valley. More from the region under Xinjiang.