I did not believe the bagua story until I climbed the small hill on the city’s edge and looked down. Tekili County (特克斯县), in the heart of Ili, is built as a perfect circle divided into eight radiating sectors — a city plan based on the Taoist bagua compass, and one of the only places in China you can say that about. In winter, with snow on the grasslands beyond, it is a quietly magical base for a northern skier, and the geometry alone is worth the detour, even before you factor in the food.
Why Base in Tekili
Tekili sits between the bigger Ili hubs and the famous grassland resorts. From here you can reach Gongliu and Kuerdening to the east and the Nalati snow routes to the south without backtracking. For a skier who wants grassland and forest turns rather than a single resort, it is a smart, central pillow that saves hours of driving each day — and in winter those hours matter, because the light goes early and the roads ice up, and every saved hour is an extra hour of slope or an extra hour of sleep.
The Bagua Layout in Practice
The circle means no traffic lights — roads spiral and radiate, and you navigate by sector. It sounds confusing; it is charming once you get it, and after two days I could give directions by compass point. The central park has a small tower you can climb for the full geometric view, and on a clear winter morning the whole city sits in a bowl of white hills with smoke rising from a thousand chimneys, and you understand why someone designed a city to face every direction at once — so that no matter where the snow comes from, some street is always sheltered.
Winter Around Tekili
Ili winters are milder than the Altai but still properly cold, and the surrounding grasslands — the famous zhusan — turn into rolling white. Local Kazakh families keep horses through the season, and you can arrange a snowy grassland ride that feels a world away from any ski resort. I rode out one afternoon with a herder’s son and came back with frozen fingers and a stupid grin, having galloped a few cautious metres across a frozen stream the horse took in stride while I white-knuckled the saddle and whooped like a child.
For wider context on the region’s slopes, see the underrated Xinjiang ski resorts roundup, which places Tekili’s surroundings in the bigger picture and explains why Ili is the sleeper region for skiers who like scenery with their turns, because the scenery here is not a bonus, it is the main event.
Food and Stay
Tekili eats like the rest of Ili: hand-grabbed rice, plov, dairy from Kazakh herders, and warming stews heavy with carrot and potato. Lodging ranges from county hotels to homestays in nearby villages where you sleep on a heated kang and wake to fresh milk tea. I rate the homestays highly for the human warmth alone — one family loaned me a sheepskin coat and refused payment beyond a photo, and the grandmother pressed a handful of dried apricots into my pocket for the road, which I found later, soft and sweet, at the exact moment I needed them.
Getting Around
A car is close to essential. Distances to the trailheads are short but rural, and winter buses are sparse. The ski-transport and roof-rack advice applies if you are carrying gear between bases, because the back roads to Kuerdening ice up fast after a snowfall and a 4×4 earns its keep before the first corner, where a two-wheel-drive car will simply sit and spin while you reconsider your life choices.
Honest Notes
Tekili is a base, not a destination slope. If you only want lift-served powder, look north toward the Altai. But for a cultural, grassland-tinged winter with easy resort access, it is one of Ili’s best-kept practical secrets, and the bagua streets make even a grocery run feel like an adventure in orientation, especially at night when the streetlights trace the eight spokes and you realise you are standing inside a compass.
Who Should Use It
Slower travellers, families, and skiers who want a real town around them at night. It slots into any Xinjiang skiing plan that includes the Ili valley, and it pairs perfectly with a night of stargazing on the clear winter steppe, where the Milky Way comes down low enough to touch and the silence is so total you can hear the snow settle.
Want a custom Ili winter route? Contact me and I will build one around your dates, your ability, and how much driving you can stand before the kids ask if we are there yet, which in Tekili’s case is usually answered with “almost, we are in sector six.”
The Eight Sectors, Explained
The bagua plan is not a gimmick — it shapes daily life. Each of the eight radial roads is named for a direction and a virtue, and locals give directions by sector and number rather than by street name. I once asked a taxi to take me “to sector three,” and he understood instantly, whereas “the main road” confused him. The central park, where the eight meet, has a small museum explaining the 1930s design by the warlord Sheng Shicai’s planners, who wanted a city that could not be ambushed from a single axis. In winter the park’s frozen pond becomes an informal skating rink for local children, and joining them for ten minutes cost me nothing and entertained everyone.
A Day on Grassland Horses
The horse day I mentioned is worth detailing. You meet the herder at his winter camp, a cluster of felt and timber at the forest edge. He saddles a calm, shaggy Ili horse — small, sure-footed, and friendlier than any rental I have ridden. The route follows a frozen stream then climbs a low ridge where the whole zhusan opens below you, white to the treeline. We stopped for milk tea from a thermos and watched a herd of sheep cross a far slope like a slow white river. This is Xinjiang skiing’s quieter cousin, and for many travellers it is the memory that outlasts the lifts.
Winter Festivals and Quiet
Tekili is not a festival town, but the lunar new year brings horse races on the frozen ground and wrestling that draws the surrounding villages. If you time it right, you get the best of Ili; if you time it wrong, you get closed guesthouses and full roads. I prefer the empty weeks of mid-January, when the bagua city is mine alone and the only sound is the crunch of snow under a rented bicycle.
Tekili Versus Yining
Yining is the prefectural capital: bigger, with the airport and the better restaurants. Tekili is the characterful base with the better access to snow routes and the better story. I fly into Yining and base in Tekili, and the fifteen-minute drive between them is the cheapest upgrade in comfort and atmosphere you will find in the valley.
The Bagua Base, Summed Up
To put it plainly: Tekili is the base I recommend most often to first-time Ili visitors, because it solves the two problems winter travellers actually have — where to sleep warm, and how to reach the snow without losing half the day to driving. The bagua quirk is a bonus, a conversation starter and a navigation puzzle that children especially love. But the substance is the location, the comfort, and the access, all of which let you ski more and fret less. I have based here a dozen times and have yet to regret a single morning’s short drive to the surrounding slopes. If you want one town to anchor an Ili winter, this circular city in the valley is the pragmatic, pleasant answer, and the only real downside is that you may, like me, start giving directions by compass point.