The Xibe people of the Ili Valley are the descendants of a Qing military garrison sent from Manchuria in 1764 and effectively stranded here when the dynasty fell. They developed their own dialect — a form of Manchu that has evolved independently for over 250 years — and their own distinct cultural identity that sits between their Manchurian origins and the Central Asian environment they found themselves in.
Chabuchaer County, about 30 kilometres south of Yining across the Ili River, is the heartland of the Xibe community. The villages here retain some traditional architecture — the timber-framed compounds that reflect their Manchurian origin — and the community maintains cultural institutions including a Xibe language school and museum. The Xibe bow-making tradition, which produced some of the finest composite bows in Asia, is still practised by a handful of craftspeople.
Getting to Chabuchaer requires a bus or taxi from Yining; the crossing of the Ili River is itself a feature of the journey. The county is not set up for heavy tourism but welcoming to visitors with a genuine interest in this unusual community.