URUMQI -- As the sun began its slow descent, the Taklamakan Desert began to cool. In Tazhong, a small settlement in the far-western wilderness, it was, however, getting hotter. Wisps of smoke rose and curled from chimneys, and restaurants heaved with weary travelers and hungry workers.

Deep in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is China's largest desert, the 337,000-square-km Taklamakan. Across China, it is known as the "sea of death." In the Uygur tongue, its name means "go in and you won't come out." Trading posts dotted across this inhospitable land once offered refuge to caravans and adventurers who used the ancient Silk Road.