"The views exceeded my expectations by miles," says Singaporean Sun Shengyao, who visited in May 2024 and describes it as "New Zealand, Switzerland and Mongolia all packed into one place".
Unlike most of China which has a Han majority, Xinjiang mostly has Turkic-speaking Muslims, with the Uyghurs being the largest ethnic group. Tensions escalated throughout the 1990s and 2000s as Uyghur allegations of marginalisation by Han Chinese spurred separatist sentiments and deadly attacks, which intensified Beijing's crackdown.
But it is under Xi Jinping that the Chinese Communist Party has begun tightening control like never before, sparking allegations of the forcible assimilation of Uyghurs into Han Chinese culture. On a visit in September, he hailed the region's "earth-shattering" development and called for the "Sinicisation of religion" – the transformation of beliefs to reflect Chinese culture and society.
Meanwhile investment has been pouring into the region. Some 200 international hotels, including prominent names like Hilton and Marriott, are either already operating or planning to open in Xinjiang.
In 2024, the region welcomed some 300 million visitors, more than double the number in 2018, according to Chinese authorities. Tourism revenue from Xinjiang grew about 40% over this period to reach 360 billion yuan ($51bn; £39bn). In the first half of this year, some 130 million tourists visited the region, contributing about 143bn yuan in revenue.
While foreign tourism has been growing, the vast majority are domestic visitors.
Beijing now has an ambitious target: more than 400 million visitors a year, and tourism revenue of 1 trillion yuan by 2030.
When Anna was planning her first visit to Xinjiang in 2015, her friends were perplexed.
"They couldn't understand why I'd visit a place that back then was considered one of China's most dangerous areas."
One of her friends pulled out of the trip and started "ghosting" her on WeChat, said the 35-year-old Chinese national, who did not want to reveal her real name.
"She said her parents forbade her from going anywhere near Xinjiang and did not want to engage further." Anna went anyway, and returned this June. But it had changed, she says.
"Xinjiang was as beautiful as I remember it, but there are far too many tourists now, especially at the major attractions."
For years, Xinjiang had bristled under Beijing's rule, sometimes erupting into violence, which kept many domestic Chinese tourists away. Then it became infamous for some of the worst allegations of Chinese authoritarianism, from the detention of more than a million Uyghur Muslims in so-called "re-education camps", to claims of crimes against humanity, by the United Nations.
China denies the allegations, but the region is largely cut off to international media and observers, while Uyghurs in exile continue to recount stories of terrified or disappeared relatives.
And yet in recent years Xinjiang has emerged as a tourist destination – within China and, increasingly, outside of the country. Beijing has pumped in billions of dollars to develop infrastructure, help produce TV dramas set in its unusual landscapes, and has occasionally welcomed foreign media on carefully orchestrated tours.
It has been repackaging the controversial region into a tourist haven, touting not just its beauty but also the very local "ethnic" experiences that rights groups say it is trying to erase.