The Gobi March 2013 will take place in Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture and Yili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern Xinjiang Province. The start line will be a 1.5-hour drive from Bole, the capital city of Bortala, at the foot of the Altai Mountains. Bortala, which means “brown steppe” in Mongolian, shares an international border with Kazakhstan to the north and west and is known for the colorful culture of its ethnic minorities. It is also famous for Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol empire, who ruled the area in the 13th century.
Along the 250 kilometers / 155 miles of the course, the terrain will include grasslands, farmlands, dirt tracks, riverbeds, rolling hills, mountain valleys, plains and plateaus. Competitors will pass through local villages and grazing lands where shepherds tend to their flocks. The course has a number of highlights, including the Mysterious Rock Valley (where the largest group of strange rock formations are located in western China), Mongolian settlements, cable bridges, views of Tian Shan snow peaks, the famous Sayram Lake and a memorial to the founding father of Mongolia, Genghis Khan.
Located in close proximity to the Tian Shan Mountains, Bole is known for alpine scenery, vast highlands, green pastures and pristine lakes. A county-level city in Xinjiang, Bole has a population of 400,000 and many ethnic groups, including Mongol, Uyghur, Kazakh, Hui, Kyrgyz and Tajik.
GOBI DESERT
The Gobi Desert is the largest desert region in Asia and the fifth largest in the world. It is also the windiest non-polar desert in the world. The climate that the area experiences varies greatly depending on the specific location due to the topography, which varies from plain, desert and mountain climates. The area annually experiences temperatures of up to 40°C / 104°F in the summer and has been known to drop to -24.4°C / -11.9°F in the winter whilst receiving only 27mm / 1 inches of rainfall annually. The area selected for the Gobi March 2013 has been closely guarded by the Chinese government due to its border position and distance from Beijing and as a result there have been very few outsiders freely exploring the area.
Credit by : http://www.4deserts.com/gobimarch/location_culture
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