Discover Xinjiang
Grape Valley
葡萄沟
A green gorge cut into the Flaming Mountains where Turpan's grapes are grown and dried, with vine-shaded walkways, drying houses of pierced brick, and Uyghur farm courtyards serving fruit and tea. The contrast with the scorched rock a kilometre away is the point.
The story
What makes this place special
Grape Valley is a watered gorge in the Flaming Mountains north of Turpan, irrigated by snowmelt and by the karez underground channel system, and it is the centre of Turpan's grape growing. Turpan's vine cultivation is long established, with sources giving figures from two thousand to three thousand years and tracing it back as far as the fifth century BC. The signature variety is the seedless white, wuhebai, named for the pale colour it keeps when dried, and described in the Qing text Huijiang Zhi as lying between green and white. The combination of a very large day-to-night temperature range, long daylight and meltwater irrigation is the local explanation for the sugar content of the fruit. The valley is in the first group of sites rated national 5A and is organised as five visitor zones, including a Wang Luobin music memorial hall, a darwaz high-wire area, an Afanti house and the oasis vineyards, with more than a hundred Uyghur family-visit points.
What you’ll discover
A green strip inside an otherwise bare red gorge: a continuous trellised vine corridor running for some kilometres with the fruit hanging overhead, irrigation channels along the paths, and open-sided mud-brick drying houses with perforated walls on the slopes above, where grapes are hung to turn into raisins. The visitor zones add a music memorial hall, performance areas and family courtyards serving fruit and tea under the vines.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Come in the middle of a hot afternoon, which is the one place in Turpan where that is the right advice: under the trellises the valley runs several degrees cooler than the town, and the shade is the attraction.
- The drying houses on the slopes are the thing to look at, and they are not the ticketed part. The perforated mud-brick walls let the desert air through while keeping the sun off, which is how Turpan raisins are made, and the buildings are an elegant piece of vernacular engineering.
- Timing matters for the fruit. The grapes are on the vines from roughly late July into September, and that is the only time the valley is what it advertises. In spring and late autumn you are walking under bare wires.
- The family-visit points are a managed arrangement with set prices for fruit, tea and a sit-down. It is pleasant; it is not a chance encounter, and knowing that in advance prevents disappointment.
- Buy raisins by the variety and by weight from the growers rather than in packets at the gate, and taste before you buy; the seedless white, the long red and the mare's nipple varieties are quite different products.
- Pair it with the karez museum, where you walk in an underground channel at a steady temperature in the teens, for the two Turpan sites that explain how the oasis works.
When to come
Late July to September, when the grapes are on the vines and the drying houses are in use; the hot part of the day, under the trellises. April to June is green but fruitless, and winter is bare.
Getting around
Fair. The main vine corridor paths are flat, surfaced and shaded, so a wheelchair can use long sections and a bad knee has an easy walk; internal buggies cover the distances between zones. The drying houses on the slopes are reached by unmade, stepped tracks and are not accessible, and the family courtyards are entered over sills with seating on raised platforms.
Worth knowing before you go
Come between August and early October if you want grapes actually on the vine - outside the harvest it is a pleasant shaded walk and a lot of souvenir raisins.
Compare established providers
Check live tours and tickets
Search for Grape Valley in Xinjiang. Prices, availability, payment and confirmation are handled by the booking provider.
China Travel Select does not take payment or create the reservation. Confirm the exact name, dates, inclusions and cancellation rules on the provider’s page.
Take a closer look
Maps, videos & more
Prices and hours change. These are the places to check on the day.
