Tarim Poplar Forest 塔里木胡杨林

About Tarim Poplar Forest

The county's introduction says the park was established in February 2004 and covers 100 square kilometres, or 436,000 mu. It describes the poplar forest there as the world's largest, most densely distributed and best surviving natural poplar forest, rated by China National Geographic among China's ten most beautiful forests and called the only desert poplar forest park among the world's 1,200 forest parks; these are the county's own claims about the park. The park is divided into a visitor service zone combining food, lodging, entertainment and shopping, a sightseeing zone where a road 17 kilometres long with 126 bends runs through old poplar forest, and a recreation zone where a 13-kilometre circular miniature railway links four or five larger forest lakes, on whose banks the county says the poplars are thick, turning gold in autumn and reflected in the water.

A Xinhua News Agency report says the forest begins to turn yellow in mid-September and reaches its best viewing period around mid-October, and describes the 100-square-kilometre park as combining poplar and desert scenery. It names the Dead Tree Forest, the Desolate Ancient Road and a road it calls internet-famous among the photo stops, and sets out what the poplar itself does: a taproot that reaches more than six metres down and sometimes over twenty, lateral roots spreading tens of metres, and leaves that are willow-shaped when young, round in middle age and maple-shaped when mature. The report also records the trees' recent history, saying that from the 1970s over-exploitation dried the lower reaches of the Tarim and the poplars that depend on water gradually died, that since 2000 Xinjiang has released ecological water into the lower Tarim for more than twenty consecutive years, and that since 2016 flood-diversion replenishment has been carried out in the basin's poplar reserve.

No cited source describes the poplar forest of the whole Tarim basin as one site; both the county introduction and the Xinhua report describe the county's park and scenic area in Luntai, and the visitor figure the report gives, 240,000 in 2024, is the scenic area manager's.

What to look for

• The Dead Tree Forest (怪树林), where the report describes trunks stripped of leaves and branches holding their posture in the light
• The 17-kilometre sightseeing road with 126 bends that the county introduction says runs through old poplar forest
• The forest lakes linked by the 13-kilometre circular miniature railway, where the county says the poplars turn gold in autumn and are reflected in the water
• The terminal station about 17 kilometres in, named after the Qayang River (恰阳河), where visitors can transfer to the forest train or take a boat
• The poplar's roots and leaves as the report describes them: a taproot more than six metres down, sometimes over twenty, and leaves willow-shaped when young, round in middle age and maple-shaped when mature

Location & getting there

Getting to Tarim Poplar Forest

Check the open visitor route and follow the site’s rules on distance, food and photography. Conservation areas may limit access beyond designated paths.

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