Explore the region
About Tazhong Desert Highway Rest Stop
The name Tazhong is recent, first appearing on Tarim oilfield survey maps in 1989, when the Tarim oil campaign planned the first oil well in the desert interior; the well produced high flows and an oil and gas field with an annual output of a million tonnes grew up there. The first desert highway across the Taklamakan from north to south opened in 1995 — the 552-kilometre Luntai-Minfeng road, 446 kilometres of which crosses shifting sand.
At the 335-kilometre point of that highway is a place called Minfeng Fork (民丰岔口), from which one road goes south to Minfeng County and another south-east to the Tazhong oilfield. Restaurants and shops opened beside the road there, and the place now has 42 restaurants, 8 supermarkets, tyre-repair and car-parts shops, hotels and express hotels. A second desert highway, the 334-kilometre Yuli-Qiemo road, opened on 30 June 2022 with a Tahe service area (塔河服务区) that has electric-vehicle charging points.
The catalogue name 塔中沙漠公路正规停靠点 is not a designation the cited pages use. The pages describe service clusters and a named service area on the desert highways; no cited source designates a particular place as an official stopping point, and none states where stopping is permitted.
What to look for
- The Minfeng Fork (民丰岔口) service cluster at the 335-kilometre point of the desert highway, with its restaurants and shops
- The Tahe service area (塔河服务区) on the Yuli-Qiemo desert highway, which has electric-vehicle charging points
- The shelterbelt along the Luntai-Minfeng highway, 436 kilometres of saxaul, tamarisk and calligonum planted with a well every 10 kilometres
- The desert town of Tazhong itself, whose jurisdiction covers 31,200 square kilometres
Location & getting there
Getting to Tazhong Desert Highway Rest Stop
Confirm the road and activity operator, weather and return transport. Stay on permitted routes and do not treat open land as unrestricted access.
- Search for 塔中沙漠公路正规停靠点 with 巴音郭楞蒙古自治州 and 且末县.
Find Tazhong Desert Highway Rest Stop
塔中沙漠公路正规停靠点 · 且末县
No reliable map pin yet: search by the Chinese name.
Sources & visit information
The linked sources support the identity and background described in this introduction. Opening hours, admission, activity availability and exact arrival arrangements have not been comprehensively checked. Confirm current visitor information with the venue; the original catalogue locality and editorial review flag are retained.