Explore the real-world places that appear in Winter Pasture by Li Juan. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Altay City, Kuytun and Fuyun County Area, Ulungur River, Ulungur Lake (Bulunkou Area), Gurbantünggüt Desert Edge and 5 more.
Altay Prefecture seat — Li Juan's regional hub
Altay is the regional hub of Li Juan's life in the Altai Mountains, where she and her mother run a small shop. It is the world she leaves behind for the winter, and the place she returns to for supplies and news. Her neighbors are astonished that she wants to follow a Kazakh herding family into the desert.
Altay is the seat of Altay Prefecture in northern Xinjiang. It has long been a crossroads for Kazakh, Han, Mongol, and Hui communities, and the surrounding mountains were traditional seasonal grazing lands.
Altay is a modest regional city that serves as a gateway to the Altai Mountains and to tourism in northern Xinjiang. It has markets, a regional museum, and access to ski and nature areas.
Visit: Altay City (landmark)
Fuyun County — Li Juan's mountain-side shop and home
Li Juan and her mother run a small convenience store in the Altai area, selling goods to herders and locals. This life among grasslands and snowy peaks is the base from which she sets out. The shop's regulars, including Kazakh herders, are the link to Cuma's family and the migration.
Fuyun County lies on the Ulungur River and is a historic Kazakh herding area. Its mining and pastoral economy shaped settlement patterns in the 20th century.
Fuyun is a small county town with shops and services for surrounding herding communities. It also hosts the Keketuohai scenic area nearby.
Northern edge of the winter pasture route
The winter pasture stretches from the Ulungur River to the Heavenly Mountains. The herders cross the river region at the start of their trek with camels, sheep, cattle, and horses. The river and its banks are essential for water and for orienting the migration.
The Ulungur River flows from the Altai Mountains to Ulungur Lake and has been a vital water source for nomadic herders for centuries.
The river and Ulungur Lake are important for fishing, wetlands, and wildlife. Nature reserves and scenic viewing areas line parts of its course.
Visit: Ulungur Lake Scenic Area (park)
Wetland shore near the river's end
The lakeshore region lies on the northern edge of the herders' world, where the river's water feeds the landscape the family leaves behind. Li Juan describes how scarce water and fresh grass shape each decision about where to move.
Ulungur Lake is one of Xinjiang's largest freshwater lakes and has long supported fishing and pastoral communities.
The lake area is a popular scenic spot with birdlife, fishing, and desert-lake views.
Visit: Ulungur Lake (park)
Sand dunes of the winter pasture
The herders lead their camels and sheep through endless sand dunes to winter pasture. Li Juan struggles with cold, wind, and unfamiliar tasks. She helps herd, chases escaped camels, and watches Cuma, Kama, and the sister-in-law manage their animals through the freezing nights.
The Gurbantünggüt is China's second-largest desert, with fixed dunes stabilized by shrubs and snow-melt moisture. Kazakh herders have used it as winter grazing because snow provides water for livestock.
The desert is a protected area known for ephemeral plants and wildlife. Access is limited, but visitors can see the dunes from the southern fringes.
Manure-built winter shelter in the sands
Li Juan and the family build a semi-underground dwelling insulated with manure and earth. Cuma digs, Kama helps, and the sister-in-law keeps order in the cramped space. It becomes the intimate center of their winter life with stoves, tea, and snow-melt water.
Semi-subterranean winter shelters (earth dugouts) have long been used by Kazakh herders to survive extreme cold on the steppe and desert.
Such dugouts are temporary and are abandoned or collapse after the season, leaving little trace. Modern herders increasingly use settled housing and trucks.
Snowfields serving as drinking water
With no springs nearby, Li Juan and the family gather snow to melt for drinking and cooking. The chore is constant and exhausting, and she learns how the weather decides survival. Cold nights drop to minus twenty degrees.
In the Gurbantünggüt, winter snow cover is what makes grazing possible. Herders depend on it for livestock water.
Snow still sustains seasonal herding in the desert, though tank trucks and wells increasingly supplement it.
Educational aspirations reaching toward the city
Kama, Cuma's teenage daughter, feels the world's burden on her shoulders and dreams of college. Her ambitions contrast with her duties on the winter pasture. Li Juan observes her determination as she juggles chores with hopes of a different life.
Urumqi is Xinjiang's capital and educational center, home to Xinjiang University, founded in 1924.
Urumqi is a large city of universities, markets, and museums, and is the main destination for rural students seeking higher education in Xinjiang.
Visit: Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum (museum)
Southern boundary of the winter pasture
The winter pasture ranges from the Ulungur River to the Heavenly Mountains. The distant snow-capped ridges mark the far edge of the herders' world. Li Juan watches them on the horizon as the family trudges across dunes.
The Tianshan range stretches across Central Asia and has been a barrier and corridor for the Silk Road. Its glaciers feed rivers and oases of Xinjiang.
Tianshan is a UNESCO World Heritage region, with national parks and scenic areas.
Visit: Tianshan Tianchi Scenic Area (park)
Home range of the Kazakh herders
The snowy Altai peaks frame the world Li Juan leaves behind. Cuma's family lives in these mountains before the migration, and they speak of green summer pastures while enduring winter in the desert.
The Altai Mountains have long been home to Kazakh nomads, who move between summer mountain pastures and winter lowlands.
The Altai area includes the Kanas and Keketuohai scenic regions, drawing hikers and tourists.
Visit: Keketuohai National Geopark (park)
More by Li Juan: All Li Juan books