Tekes Bagua City Guide: The Octagonal Town at the Heart of the Ili Valley

I climbed the mound at the centre of Tekes at dusk and watched eight roads fan out like the spokes of a wheel — the whole city is a compass you can stand inside.

Tekes is the oddity of the Ili Valley: a county town laid out in the shape of the Bagua, the eight trigrams of the I Ching, with two ring roads and eight radial avenues named after the trigrams and pointing to the compass points. No traffic lights, no grid — and, famously, you cannot get lost, because every road bends back toward the centre. It was planned in the 1930s on the old nomadic cosmology and rebuilt to the pattern in the 1990s, and today it is the practical gateway to the Karajol grassland and a quiet base for the southern Ili loop. This guide covers how to read the city, what to do there, and how to use it as a launch pad for the meadows and the Zhaosu orchards.

What the Bagua layout actually is

The city has two concentric ring roads and eight radial avenues, each named for a trigram (Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun and the rest) and aligned to a compass point. The centre is an open mound you can climb for the view; from the top the eight spokes are obvious. There are no traffic lights because the radial design keeps flows simple, and locals joke that a wrong turn just brings you back to the middle. I treat the centre mound as the first stop — ten minutes up and you understand the whole town, and every later drive makes sense. It is the one sight in Xinjiang you appreciate from above, not from the car window, so park and walk the ring once before you trust the roads.

• Two ring roads + eight trigram avenues
• No traffic lights; wrong turns return to centre
• Climb the centre mound first

Getting to Tekes and driving in

Tekes sits in the Ili Valley, about 70 km south of Nalati and 80 km east of Zhaosu, linked by the G577 and county roads. driving distances from Yining are about 120 km; from Nalati it is a short southern hop. The roads in are good tarmac, and the radial avenues inside are wide and easy — the ‘can’t get lost’ claim is real. I approach from Nalati on a loop and leave south to Zhaosu, using Tekes as the hinge of the southern Ili day. Fuel and a repair shop are in town; fill up here because the Karajol road up is long and empty. The drive in from the G218 is one of the prettiest in the valley, along the Ili River and into the foothills.

• ~120 km from Yining; ~70 km from Nalati
• G577 + county roads, good tarmac
• Fuel up; Karajol road is long and empty

The centre mound and the night view

The open centre is the city’s signature. By day it is a park with the trigram plan laid in stone; by night the ring roads light up and the eight spokes glow, which is the photo most people come for. I go at dusk — the light is soft, the mound is quiet, and you get both the daytime layout and the night glow in one visit. There is no fee to climb. Around the centre sit the night market and a few teahouses; after the mound I walk the inner ring for a bowl of liangpi and a cup of milk tea. It is a small town’s small spectacle, but it is genuine and free, and a good way to end a driving day before an early start to the grassland.

• Free to climb; day layout + night glow
• Best at dusk for both views
• Night market + tea by the inner ring

Tekes as the gateway to Karajol grassland

The real reason to base in Tekes is Karajol (also called Kalajun), the high meadow south of town where the road climbs through flower fields in summer and snow in spring. The Karajol scenic area runs its own shuttle from a gate south of the city, so Tekes is your sleep-and-fuel stop before the bus. I sleep in Tekes, leave at first light, and catch the Karajol shuttle for the high meadow walk; the alternative — a long day from Yining — wastes the morning. Dog-welcoming courtyards are easy to find here. Tekes is the hinge: Nalati to the north, Zhaosu to the south, Karajol straight up, all within an hour, which is why it earns a night on the loop rather than a pass-through.

• Karajol meadow gate is south of town
• Sleep Tekes, catch first shuttle up
• Hub: Nalati / Zhaosu / Karajol within an hour

Food, markets and a practical base

Tekes eats like the rest of the Ili Valley — soft buns, herbal liangpi, polo, and a good night market by the centre ring. The bazaar runs on the usual market days and is the place for sangza and dried fruit before the grassland day. Hotels are practical and cheap: a clean county room runs 160–280 yuan, often with parking behind a gate, which matters on a road trip. I use Tekes as the cheaper, calmer base versus Yining when I am doing the southern loop — same valley food, half the bustle. The town is small enough to walk after dark and safe enough to do it; the radial roads make a post-dinner loop obvious even without a map.

• Valley food: buns, liangpi, polo, night market
• County room 160–280 yuan with parking
• Cheaper, calmer base than Yining

A day plan around Tekes

A good Tekes day: arrive late morning from Nalati, fuel and check in, climb the centre mound at dusk, eat at the night market; next day, first-light shuttle to Karajol, afternoon drive south to Zhaosu (60 km) for the orchards or the green basin; evening in Zhaosu. That uses Tekes as the hinge without a dead day. If you are short on time, Tekes alone is a half-day (mound + market) plus the Karajol morning; the Bagua city is a curiosity, the grassland is the prize. I always tell drivers to treat the city as the launch pad, not the destination — the meadow up the road is why you stopped.

• Day 1: arrive, mound at dusk, night market
• Day 2: Karajol shuttle, then Zhaosu
• City = launch pad; meadow = prize