The Ili Grassland lies in a fold of the Tianshan Mountains, one of the largest mountain ranges in Asia. Surrounded by ridges on three sides, it is open on the west to humid currents of air. Thanks to this moisture, a vertical division of grassland belts has been formed ranging through frigid meadows, montane meadows, montane meadow steppe, montane steppe, montane desert steppe, plain desert and river valley meadows.

The Ili Grassland boasts fertile soil and a mild, humid climate, with more rainfall in the mountains than in the river valley. The average annual temperature is 8-9 degrees centigrade, ideal for both pasturing and farming. Between the plain and the mountains are scattered barren desert, grassland, meadow, bush and forest areas. In winter, the herdsmen usually tend their cattle on the plain and in the desert; in spring they move to the mountain slopes; in summer, they go higher to the alpine meadows; and in autumn, they return to the lowlands.

While the Gobi occupies a vast area of southern Xinjiang, grasslands and forests are the main features of the landscape in the north. Ili is famous for the beauty of its mountains and rivers, woods an meadows.

Unlike the grasslands in Inner Mongolia, their counterparts in Xinjiang are located at high altitudes, either on mountain plateaus or slopes, or at the foot of the mountains, neighboring large woods and deep vales.

The 11-million-mu (15 mu =1 hectare) Künes Grassland is located at an elevation of about 2,000 meters, and is surrounded by peaks and ridges of the Tianshan Mountains.

Like all the other grasslands in Xinjiang, those of Ili are companions to snow-capped mountains. They are home to horses and hawks, and are like beautiful picture scrolls hanging from the towering peaks.