This is the new Wild West - quite literally, for the many young people flocking to Khorgas from the big Chinese mega-cities to the East.

When you cross the border to the Kazakh side, things are more subdued. The Kazakh Khorgos (the name of the town is the same, but there is a difference in pronunciation) is still more or less what it has always been: a couple of dozen old houses congregated around a pretty mosque and a road running down to the border post.]