On a hazy afternoon in the city of Urumqi, northwest China, Song Yujiang steps into the cramped outdoor equipment shop he runs on South Youhao Road, and gently wrests control of the store’s computer from his two-year-old son. He clicks through a folder of photos from his trips leading moneyed weekend warriors into western China’s rugged mountains, and stops at a photo of several hikers standing on a field of grey mountain shale, dwarfed by dozens of eerily beautiful towers of white ice.

China’s far northwest occupies a precarious position on the map of potential climate catastrophe. Josh Chin (’07) and Zachary Slobig (’07) report for China Dialogue from Xinjiang, where water security is a key question for residents.

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