Yili area is located in the west of Xinjiang, China and is an intermontane basin of Tianshan, which is surrounded by the mountains in the north, south and east and adjacent to Central Asia deserts in the west. Controlling by the westerly year and year out, the modern climate is different from the monsoon area where the maximum precipitation occurs in summer. The season precipitation of Yili area is relatively equal to each other and the percentage of precipitation in winter is higher than that of monsoon area. As a part of the Central Asia loess zone, the loess in Yili area is not only widespread, but the sequence is successive and the deposition rate is high. The loess record from Yili area shows that the climatic change during the last glaciation responds to that of global, but it shown some regional speciality.

1. Loess record from Yili area
   According to the loess record, same as the Loess Plateau, the climate of Yili area during the last glaciation was of instability. In the Zeketai section of Yili area eleven stronger wind events (14.0, 20.0, 23.9, 25.5, 33.0, 36.7, 47.5, 52.0, 58.0, 61.5, 67.0 ka BP) were recorded, some of which respond to the Heinrich events that happened in the North Atlantic. All of the interstadials on millennial-centennial scale that were documented by the Greenland ice core during the last glaciation have been identified in the loess record from Yili area except for the S5. Compared the loess record from Yili area with those from the north and west of the Loess Plateau (the Yuanbao section and Lijiayuan section), it can be found that the trend of climatic change was uniform at the three different areas. All of them are similar to the mode of ice volume change. However the loess record from Yili area show a similarity to the Greenland to certain degree between S3-S12. In addition to, the transitions from the warm to the cold periods were dramatic, whereas the variations from cold to warm periods were fluctuant.
2. Comparison the climate of Yili area since the last glaciation with those of other areas of China
   Comparing the climate since the last glaciation with other areas, it can be found that there are some differences between the monsoon and westerly areas. First, on the whole the climate of Yili area during the last glaciation was dry, but was fluctuant. The assemblage of humidity and temperature was very complex. The last glacial loess in Yili area includes three units: two loess units brackets a poorly developed paleosol unit and respond to three marine isotope stages (MS2-4) respectively. The study shows that during the early stadial stage (MS4) the content of the particle less than 10mm decreased (34.8%, the percentage of Artimisia was higher than the Chenopodiaceae, the concentration of carbonate was relatively low (17.4%), and the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios were high (0.7131-0.7135), which approach to those of the last interglacial paleosol (0.7133-0.7137). All of these imply that the westerly was strong and the humidity was relatively high. Compared with the early stadial stage, the late stadial stage (MS2) was relatively dry. This is supported by previous studies on paleoglaciation and ice core from Qinghai and Tibet Plateau and some pollen evidences from the west part of the Loess Plateau. The interstadial stage, westerly was relatively weaker, pedogenisis was prevailing and formed poorly developed paleosols. The percentage of Artimisia was lower than the Chenopodiaceae, the concentration of carbonate was relatively high (19.7%), and the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios were low (0.7122-0.7130), which even are lower than that of the loess to accumulated at the early stadial stage. However the evidences from the concentration of carbonate and composition of the strontium isotope show that at the end of the interstadial stage the climate became to be relatively wet. In a sharp contrast to the model that cold matches dry and warm matches wet at the east and central part of the Loess Plateau, the climatic change of Yili area during the last glaciation show its complexity. Second, the deposition rate of dust during the early cold stage was higher than that of the late cold stage in the Yili area, while the maximum rate of dust deposition at the Loess Plateau occurred at the last maximum glaciation. Third, the maximum of last glacial occurred at 18 ka BP in the Loess Plateau and it usually responds to the global cooling when the temperature was low and the wind was strong. This was supported by the results of climate modeling. The record from Yili area shows that the strongest wind event occurred at 24 ka BP instead of the 18 ka BP, which is consistent with the results from the aeolian dust deposits in the Pacific Ocean. Last, based on the variation of the grain size, it can be concluded that the westerly was getting to decrease since the deglaciation, but the dust accumulation was going on until late Holocene. High concentration of carbonate, low ratio of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and no soil to be developed imply that the climate was dry during the early and middle Holocene that was similar to the other areas of Northern Xinjiang and Central Asia. Since the late Holocene the climate was relatively wet and the soil was developed. On the contrary, the climate of middle Holocene was characterized by the warm and humid in the monsoon area.