Places Chouxie Wants to Go

This weekly market in the remote oasis city of Hotan still has the atmosphere of the old Silk Road.

Sited in an Inner Mongolian desert are the remnants of an important trade stop along the Silk Road.

Ancient barriers wrap around what was once an important stop along the Silk Road.

Mysterious lost empire of the Silk Road.

Sample specialties from Xinjiang at this Shinjuku neighborhood gem.

Extremely isolated Silk Road caravanserai in the middle of nowhere.

Inside this museum is an ongoing excavation of an ancient shipwreck.

An abandoned Soviet-era park that, when viewed from the air, looks like a pentagram.

This was once the largest city in Kazakhstan, and a major stop on the Silk Road.

This sprawling market is a one-stop shop for traditional Kazakh foods, from mare’s milk to sheep’s head.

Avenue of trees planted by cosmonauts before their space departures.

An entertainment center in a huge transparent tent.

In Kazakhstan, a colorful cathedral with many lives once survived the most powerful earthquake in the region.

Mysterious spherical rocks in the semi-desert of western Kazakhstan.

An abandoned Soviet-era mining town in the mountains of South Kazakhstan.

The lovely lake that was naturally dammed, then naturally destroyed, then unnaturally saved.

A brilliant turquoise lake in the mountains.

Rusting ships sit in a desert where a sea used to be.

Granny Smiths and Fujis can both be traced back to Kazakhstan, where apples still grow wild.

Submerged trees jut ghost-like out of an idyllic turquoise mountain lake.

A house of bones — but nobody is quite sure to whom they belong.

The Bristol Camera Obscura housed in an ancient windmill.

Massive puppet-automaton machines created by French artist collective Machines de l’Ile.

Leonardo da Vinci was one of many to find inspiration in this unique, rocky landscape in Tuscany.