Eden in the Xinjiang Mountains

Nature's greatest splendors are often secreted in the remotest of spots. This is certainly true of Kanas Lake, deep in the Altay Mountains of northern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. This area of sublime, and as yet unsullied, natural beauty is home to 2,000 people of the Tuwa ethnic minority. The ancestry of these herder-hunters is unclear. Certain anthropologists believe that they are descended from Genghis Khan's "Mongol hordes" that swept through on their 13th century rampage of Central Asia and Europe. Others argue that they are the posterity of Siberian migrants, and cousins to the Tuvan people of Russia.

Eden in the Xinjiang Mountains