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Turks rested overnight, and drove 100 kilometers southeast early the next morning to Jonkush Terrace.
If you have never been to Xinjiang, you may have heard of Kanas, Tianshan Tianchi, Bayinbulak, Sailimu Lake about the beautiful scenery here... but you may be unfamiliar with Qiongkushtai—this What kind of "platform" is it?
Although you took the literal meaning of Jonkush Terrace to be some kind of "platform", you were really mistaken! "Jongkushtai" is Kazakh, which means "big platform".
A big platform is a big platform, what does it mean to add a "zi"?
I'm not trying to be funny. If you ask a local guide who understands Chinese, he will answer "Dapingzi". People in Xinjiang like to add "zi" after their names, probably to show kindness. For example, a little boy is called "Balangzi", a little girl is called "Yatouzi", a little daughter-in-law is called "Yangchangzi", and when chatting is called "Qianchuanzi". "...
In fact, the "zi" after the title is to express a kind of intimacy with the things they like. For example, many people call puppies "gouzi", and the dialect of Hubei also calls legs "legs", which is often used for volume. A pet name for something smaller than itself. But in Xinjiang, people often call them "...zi", whether it's small things for eating or great scenery for playing, which reflects the boldness of the local folk customs, mixed with a touch of cuteness With charm.
The endless fir forests and green grass in the picture below are what the locals call "Big Platform", or "Jongkush Terrace", which makes people feel more mysterious and romantic.
From Tekes to Qiongkushitai, you will also pass through barren mountains and dangerous roads. When you approach the destination, you will encounter a canyon river.
The altitude here is slightly higher, there are only sporadic weeds on the gravel wasteland, a few black crows occasionally stay on the exposed red rocks, and a few idle horses pass by from time to time in the desolate land. If it weren't for the nearby "Milk River", we and the animals Neither will linger here.
Going down the river, the green grass gradually covers the hillside, and the green trees gradually form an array. At the end of the dense forest and grass, you finally come to Qiongkushitai.
Qiongkushitai is also the name of a village here. There are more than 300 households in the village, mainly Kazakhs. The village is built near mountains and rivers. Most of the villagers make a living by grazing. The drinking water for people and animals comes from the "Milk River" we pass through. ", the locals call it the "Kurdei River", the river valley is wide and the water flow is continuous all year round, and even the power generation in the village is the contribution of the Kurdei River's hydraulic power.
This village still retains many wooden houses from the 1950s and 1960s, which have typical Kazakh nomadic characteristics and can be regarded as a "historical and cultural village". The wooden houses are all built with local fir trees, some with whole logs, and some with no bark peeled off from the sheds, which can be called the original ecological "tree houses". Pine and fir trees are hard and durable, so that the local wooden buildings have not been deformed, and some houses have been preserved for hundreds of years.
Above Qiongkushitai Village is an alpine meadow surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The mountains are rolling and rolling, the grasslands and forests are overlapping with each other, together with the blue sky, white clouds and snow-covered snow-capped mountains, they form a beautiful landscape painting, and the small Kazakh houses dotted in it make people feel like they are in a paradise, refreshing and ecstatic.
There is no shortage of grasslands in Xinjiang, but Qiongkushtai is rich in landforms. The ravines on the grasslands are like waves in the sea, which makes the calm green land exude a rough and masculine beauty, which is rare in other grasslands.
You can enter the Kalajun prairie deep in the Qiongkushi platform, but it was too late that day, and you have encountered similar landscapes (such as human grassland, three-dimensional grassland, etc.) before, so you decided to return to Tekes. Xiaojun will take part in an exam that he signed up for in Yining soon, so we had to part temporarily and agreed to meet again when I arrived in Gansu. Unexpectedly, the epidemic was severe across the country at that time, and there were several places in Gansu that had not had an epidemic for more than a year. There was a sudden epidemic in the city. After the exam, she went to southern Xinjiang, and I walked the rest of the journey alone.
For a day or two, if I feel lost, but soon calm down, as mentioned above, not afraid of loneliness, not refusing to be together, whether alone or two, the road always has to go...
The next day, I drove 300 kilometers to the northeast via Nalati and came again to the Bayinbulak prairie that I passed by when I was walking in Duku. After returning to the Yili Small Ring Road, I didn’t expect that it would be a month later, but the timing was just right. Bayinbulak in autumn is the most beautiful time of the year.
(Passing through Nalati Sea of Flowers)
(The vast Bayinbulak prairie)
Buy tickets in the small town, take the scenic bus to drive into the grassland, and the first thing you arrive at is the Swan Home.
Swan Homeland is the largest nature reserve for wild swans in my country. Every year when spring is warm and flowers bloom and everything recovers, thousands of wild swans migrate long distances from the southern hemisphere to Bayinbulak to inhabit and reproduce. They live here for up to 8 months, so Bayinbulak is a veritable home of swans. When entering and exiting Bayinbulak Town from the Duku Highway, you will see many swan image landscapes, and the gate of the grassland scenic spot is also a "Swan Gate".
It is also a wild animal rescue station in a national nature reserve, including swans, 146 species of 34 families of birds, 25 species of 12 families of mammals, 4 species of 2 families of reptiles and many other wild animals. Great place to get close to wild animals.
Swans are generally reserved and cold, and they only swim gracefully in the lake, but lake gulls are much more lively, lining up on the corridor, waiting for snacks from tourists.
On the grassland on the east side of Swan Lake stands a Tibetan Buddhist temple - Barunkure Temple, which is related to the famous Turghut people's return to the east in history.
In 1771 AD, 170,000 Turghuts who immigrated to the Volga River Basin returned eastward under the leadership of Ubashi Khan and brought back seven mobile temples, one of which was the Barunkure Temple. The so-called mobile temples are places where temples are placed on horse-drawn carriages for migrating people to worship at any time. The Barunkure Temple is the last mobile temple that has been handed down since the Turghuts returned to the east.
In fact, the temple in front of me is an imitation of the original Barunkure Temple. In recent decades, the local Mongolian herdsmen have gradually given up the lifestyle of living by water and grass, and mobile temples have also been fixed and become a kind of historical memory.
(Prairie Stone Sheep)
Continue to drive for more than ten kilometers to the Basilike Observation Platform in the depths of the scenic spot. This is the place to watch the highlight of this trip - "Nine Twists and Pearls".
The so-called "Jiuqu Lianzhu" means that when the sun sets, the winding river water will reflect the sun, forming a spectacle of 3, 5, 7, or even 9 suns in a string.
To form Jiuqu Lianzhu, in addition to the weather - sunny and evening, you also need the right location - nine bends and eighteen bends. The river in front of us is called Kaidu River, which flows through the flat and boundless Bayinbulak prairie. Affected by the earth's rotation and deflection force, it forms winding lines, as if the streamers of fairies pass through the swan lake, and it is like the sky is Bayinbulak. The holy khata draped in this emerald kingdom.
(Kaidu River with nine bends and eighteen bends)
In the evening, the rays of the sun slanted, the setting sun shook the gold, and the golden crow gradually took shape in the curved water, shining brightly. Suddenly someone shouted, "Five suns have appeared", and someone shouted, "I saw seven suns", and someone shouted Ask "Where can I see the nine suns"... The photographers who are so excited all want to capture the rare scene of "Nine Suns Set in Nine Songs".
However, on that day, people saw at most 7 suns on more than a dozen viewing platforms up and down. The driver on the return trip said that 9 suns could only be seen from a specific viewing platform. This is not an afterthought. Well, no! But it makes sense for people not to say it in advance, otherwise, the viewing platform would not be crushed.
(last afterglow)
Regarding the Jiuqu Lianzhu Observation Deck - Basili is worth mentioning again: this is the highest point of the Bayinbulak Grassland, where seven Turghut warriors were buried. When they returned to the east, these seven warriors served as explorers Lu Xianfeng protected the safe return of more than 100,000 compatriots, but he himself sacrificed his life due to hunger, severe cold, disease and war. Now they are buried here and continue to guard the beautiful and rich grassland.
From Nalati to Korla, where we will arrive next, passing Hejing, Yanqi, and Bosten Lake, they are all in the Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, although I know in my heart that there are many Mongolian-based people living on the land under my feet. ethnicity, but the stubborn impression of Xinjiang still stays in Uygur and Islam, Red Mountain Canyon and grassland forest, so seeing the surrounding wilderness and distant snow-capped mountains on the Yiruo Line, the Fengma Banner and Aobao on the roadside, it seems like another Traveling back to Mongolia and the Tibetan plateau, the landscape is so similar!
(Mani piles and Fengma flags in the roadside wetlands and the snow-capped mountains in the distance seem to be on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau)
This is a very magical feeling, or a discovery: You must know that regions and cultures influence each other. Culture will invade the "inside" of regions, but regions will change the "face" of cultures.
It's a bit confusing, so let me illustrate with an example:
For example, Buddhism, which is a kind of foreign culture, has profoundly influenced our Chinese civilization after it was introduced into China. In Tibet and Yunnan, the influence of Buddhism is equally profound, and even Tibetan Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism have become the mainstream of local culture and education respectively. This is called "the 'lizi' of culture invading the region".
The core world views of Chinese Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism are similar, but there are significant differences in form, practice method, and emphasis on scriptures. If you have been to Yunnan and Tibet, you will have obvious feelings, the most intuitive Yes, the architectural features of temples, the appearance of Buddha statues, and the technical content of murals are all three different styles. This is because after Buddhism was introduced to the three places, it learned from each other and merged with the original culture (including religion, mythology, etc.) of each place, and gradually developed a unique appearance. This is called "regional change of the 'face' of culture".
(Obo at Habuqihai Pass, as if in the Mongolian Plateau)
According to this rule, the Mongolian-inhabited areas in Xinjiang should be influenced by the original culture of the region, so tourists can see some Islamic tendencies on the surface. However, judging from the landscape I have seen along the way, the Mongolian here Not only has the ethnic group not been affected, even the natural scenery with little human intervention is very similar to the look and feel of the Mongolian plateau. This is called "magical".
Most of the Mongols in Bazhou are the descendants of the Turghuts mentioned above. I guess, more than two hundred years ago, their ancestors returned to the embrace of the motherland after going through untold hardships, and wanted to choose a place When they restarted their lives, the impression of the plateau flowing in their blood made them choose this land, because this is what their hometown looks like in their memories.
(The road in the picture below instantly reminds me of a section of the Aliyez line)
After driving for more than four hours, I came to Bohu County, which is located in the lower reaches of the Kaidu River. It is named after the famous Bosten Lake in the territory. The mother lake of the state people, next we will go to Bosten Lake.
(Bohu Flower Sea in the suburbs of Bohu County)
Bosten Lake was called "West Sea" in ancient times. According to records, when Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty was on an envoy to the Western Regions, he encountered Bosten Lake and thought it was the land and sea in the Qin and Han Dynasties. He called it "Qin Sea". For "West Sea".
(Sculpture by Zhang Qian)
Bosten Lake is also an important node for the Turghut people to return to the east. During the Qianlong period, the name was changed from "West Sea" to Bosten Lake, which means "the hero dismounts and camps." In 1771, the Oirat Mongolian Heshuote tribe who nomadic in the Volga River Basin in Europe traveled thousands of miles back to the motherland and wrote a tragic patriotic epic in human history. After returning to China, they received support and relief from all over the country, and they lived on the shore of Bosten Lake to rebuild their homes. Bosten Lake became the end point of their return to the east.
(10,000 acres of lotus leaves)
Today's Bosten Lake is one of the most fascinating scenic spots in Bazhou. It is the largest inland freshwater lake in China, the largest wild water lily base in China, one of the four major reed areas in the country, and the largest fishery production base in Xinjiang. The water area is 1,640 square kilometers, with 600,000 mu of reeds, 100,000 mu of water lilies, more than 30 species of fish, and more than 200 species of birds. There are Dahekou, Ahongkou, Bailuzhou and other scenic spots along the lake. It is a tourist attraction for flocking birds, enjoying lotus flowers in summer, tasting wild fish in autumn, and walking on ice and snow in winter.
(10,000 acres of reeds)
I went to Dahekou on the west bank of Bosten Lake, where the waters are vast and misty, and it is known as "a pearl in the desert sea" and "the first scene of Bosten Lake". The scenic spot is laid out in a gourd-shaped structure, including fishing port wharf, Xihai First Pot, Guanyu Pavilion, Wanghai Pavilion and other scenic spots. It is called "Xihai", which really makes people feel like they are facing the sea.
(such as Haixihai)
The picture below is the first pot in the West Sea, which won the "Best Guinness in the World". It was cast in April 2010. The pot is 3 meters high, 4 meters in diameter, and weighs 3 tons, implying that the people of all ethnic groups in Bohu County live well and perfect harmony.
The picture below is the reed wetland named "Clam Autumn Fragrance". The winding plank road extends into the endless reed marshes. You can have a panoramic view of the Dahe Estuary when you climb up the reed viewing pavilion and look around.
Walking on the wetland plank road, the lake wind blows, blowing the reeds, and there is a rustling sound, like a chorus of reeds. Wild animals such as egrets, swans, and otters shuttle from time to time constitute a harmonious picture of nature, full of wildness.
The picture below shows Jiang Taigong Fishing Garden. In the garden, birds chirp and aquatic plants smoke. There are crucian carp, carp, grass carp, snakehead and other five-color fish species in the pond. Fishing in all seasons is free, full of interest and leisurely.
The fountain in the lake surged, and the water droplets danced, drawing a colorful ribbon with the sun.
The picture below is Guanyu Pavilion, where there are more than 10 kinds of fish such as koi, red carp, and red crucian carp. On the lake, small red, yellow, white, and flowery fish shuttle and play, forming a beautiful scenery. Sometimes the little fish jump out of the water mischievously, or shake their heads and tails and spit blisters, which is very interesting.
(Guan Yu Xuan)
The picture below shows the West Sea Corridor, which is 400 meters long. The ceiling is made of reed woven curtains, which provide shade and shelter from the heat while surrounding it beautifully. The corridor displays the beautiful scenery of the West Sea and Mongolian folk customs. The fragrance of lotus flowers on the side of the corridor is refreshing. .
Pass through the West Sea Corridor and come to Wanghai Pavilion. There is a cool breeze in the pavilion, and the magnificent scenery of the water and the sky comes into view. There is a boat dock here, where tourists can enjoy the lake leisurely by yacht, or take a passionate swim on a motorboat.
There is a sacrificial altar on the mountain bag not far from Guanhai Pavilion, which is the place where the Mongolian people hold activities such as offering sacrifices to heaven, offering sacrifices to Obo, and offering sacrifices to Buddha. Every year, people hold a ceremony of releasing animals during the fishing festival. The pavilion on the sacrificial platform is designed based on the prototype of a yurt, reflecting Mongolian folk culture.
Dahekou travels 80 kilometers westward to Korla. You may know this city because of its fragrant pears. What you may not know is that Korla is the capital of Bazhou and the second largest city in Xinjiang. It is also called "North Wunanku" together with Urumqi. .
In the city's museums, we will learn more about the history of the Turghuts' return to the east, as well as the mysterious ancient Loulan and the ancient city of Milan. That's right, the Loulan you heard about in adventure novels or movies is located in the south of Bazhou.
What are the specific strange experiences, let us see you next time!
