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On September 12, following the westward journey in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Sichuan, Tibet, and Xinjiang, he embarked on the journey back to the east.
It’s a bit far-fetched to say it. I happened to be reading “Journey to the West” when I was traveling to the west. .... I have already encountered a thrilling experience on the journey to the west, and I hope that the next return to the east will be more sunny and bright.
The first stop of the eastward trip is Qinghai, a province named after Qinghai Lake. Tourists also yearn for other large and small lakes in the territory, such as Chaka Salt Lake, Xiaochaidan Lake, Emerald Lake, Keluke Lake- Tosu Lake and more. If the lakes in Tibet and Xinjiang have calming and pure colors, then the lakes in Qinghai have a surprising colorful makeup, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue and purple. It is not so much lake water as a pool of paint.
(Aiken Springs and Emerald Lake)
After entering Qinghai from Ruoqiang in southern Xinjiang, the first thing you arrive at is Mangya. This is an isolated city in the west of Haixi Prefecture, surrounded by no-man's land and desert, known as the "west gate" of Qinghai.
Although Mangya is an isolated city of thousands of miles of sand, it is probably the most beautiful landscape on the planet: Aiken Spring known as the "Devil's Eye", Emerald Lake, which is as green as emerald, Yardang Landform Surrounded by the Martian Highway, and the Russian Boliang that makes people feel like they are facing aliens...
First let's go to Aiken Springs.
Drive westward from Huatugou Town, Mangya City, and enter the Alar Grassland by the Gasi Lake. After more than 10 kilometers, you can reach Aiken Spring.
Aiken Spring was discovered at the end of the 19th century. From 1884 to 1886, the famous Russian explorer Przevalsky conducted a scientific investigation in the Mangyagas area, and accurately described and recorded the existence of Aiken Spring in his notes.
Aiken Spring is "Aikenbulage" in Mongolian (Haixi Prefecture is a Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture), meaning "source spring". It is the bright eyes under Mangya's forehead that are so gazing, and they are also dubbed "Eye of the Earth", "Eye of the Devil", "Eye of the Angel", etc., which is amazing.
The Alar Grassland where Aiken Spring is located has many salt lakes, the largest of which is Gasikule Lake, where the meandering stream on the grassland finally flows into this lake. If you compare Gasikule Lake to a beautiful girl, then Aiken Spring is her eyeliner and makeup.
(Lakeside and salt mining equipment around Aiken Springs)
Aiken Spring has a diameter of more than 10 meters. The spring is like boiling water, constantly tumbling upwards. The sulfur minerals around the spring have been deposited for a long time and are colorful. It is known as the "little yellow dragon on the cliff".
The place where Aiken Spring flows is hard to grow and there are very few mosquitoes. It has become a summer resort for disinfection of cattle, sheep and wild animals. Aiken Spring will not freeze in winter, and the flow of red spring water will form the image of "dragon eye and phoenix feather".
(There is a lifting platform in the scenic spot for tourists to overlook the spring)
Travel 50 kilometers eastward from Aiken Spring to Emerald Lake. Contrary to the ardent gaze of the devil's eyes, Emerald Lake is a peaceful emerald green.
There is another Dachaidan Emerald Lake in Qinghai that is even more famous, but in terms of perception, Mangya Emerald Lake is not far behind. This Emerald Lake is an artificial salt lake located on the eastern edge of Gasi Lake, with Kunlun Mountains in the south and Altun Mountains in the north.
Emerald Lake covers an area of about 26 square kilometers. It belongs to the magnesium sulfate subtype salt lake. There is a rock salt layer at the bottom of the lake, which is rich in salinity such as lithium, potassium fertilizer, and thenardite. The salt water is called "brine" locally and has a high concentration. formed pits.
The emerald green color of the lake is caused by the minerals contained in it. Due to the different concentration of minerals, the depth of the color is also different, from light blue, emerald green to dark green, with rich layers and fascinating. When the wind is calm and the sea is calm, it looks like a lens, clean and pure, with pure colors, like a piece of emerald jade inlaid on the Gobi, which is too beautiful to be absorbed.
After visiting the Emerald Lake, return to the Xisha Line (National Highway 315) and continue eastward. The next stop is Mars No. 1 Highway 200 kilometers away. The current highway already feels like driving on an alien planet.
On both sides of the road is the vast and boundless Gobi, and on the Gobi is the endless Yadan. I have seen Yadan in Xinjiang Devil City, Duku Highway and other places before, but it has never been so continuous and large-scale. The road of hundreds of kilometers is full of such peculiar wind-eroded landforms, which makes people feel that the planet under their feet is not beautiful. Another illusion of the earth.
"Yardang" is a Uighur language, meaning "a small hill with steep walls". Because this landform originated from the discovery of the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin during his investigation in Lop Nur, Xinjiang, it was first called Yardang in the local Uygur language, and later he called it Yardang. His works have been widely disseminated in academic circles at home and abroad, and are transliterated as "Yadan" in China. Later, "Yadan" was officially accepted by the academic circles and became the collective name for many similar landforms in the world's arid regions.
The so-called Yadan refers to the combination of wind-eroded mounds and concave landforms arranged alternately with the prevailing wind direction after weathering, intermittent water erosion and wind erosion on the ground formed by the soil-like sediments of river and lake facies. As shown in the picture above, some are pyramid-shaped, some are elongated, some are cylindrical, and some are irregular in shape, which makes people imagine, so Yadan in some places is called "Devil City".
(a spaceship waiting to break ground)
After traveling on the "Devil City" highway for more than three hours, I suddenly saw the black minimalist future gate not far from the side of the Xisha line. I slowed down and approached. It turned out that this is the entrance to the Mars No. 1 highway.
An astronaut sits on the door, and on the side of the door stands a cube with mysterious characters engraved on it, as well as words such as "Roche limit", "exploring the edge of the universe". One side of the cube reads, "Astronauts on their way to Mars encountered a dust storm on Mars after passing through the atmosphere of Mars, with a wind speed of 400 km/h. After a very short 45 seconds, the probe crashed on the surface of Mars, and the astronauts walked out of the Martian capsule." , thinking about how to continue the Mars exploration mission while waiting for rescue. What will he experience during the Mars exploration? Follow his footsteps and start your Mars exploration journey from Mars No. 1 highway!"
Such a detailed description makes people feel like they are in the sci-fi game scene of "Runaway Player" or "Ready Player One", and they are full of expectations for the next exploration.
Pass through the Gate of Mars and drive onto the Mars Route 1.
It is said to be a "highway", but it is actually a dirt road, but the dirt road is better and the sense of substitution is stronger.
Mars No. 1 Highway is 95 kilometers long and connects Lenghu Town and Xisha Line. The road is covered with Yardang landforms, covering the entire period of Yardang formation—formation period, development period, maturity period and extinction period. Back shape, pillar shape, beacon shape, round mound shape and other most colorful and fantastic Yardang shapes, like people, like gods and Buddhas, like animals, like birds, like ancient castles, like alien visitors... are elegant The place with the most complete landforms and the most diverse shapes can be called the Yadan Museum.
The dirt road was fast and bumpy, and the road was slow, enjoying the scenery while moving forward. On the way, we arrived at the Mars camp, and it was already evening.
The Mars camp is actually an accommodation for visiting the Yadan landform in the Qaidam Basin, and it is also the entrance to the Erboliang tourist area on the west side, but the appearance of the building looks like an alien camp in a sci-fi movie, plus the unusual strange landforms around it , making this place also a scenic spot in the "Mars Exploration Journey". The camp not only provides accommodation, but also provides experience items such as spacesuits, Mars signal sources, and Mars rescue vehicles, allowing you to be an astronaut in an all-round way.
Being an astronaut is expensive, so let's focus on the visual experience.
As the sun goes down, the desolate "Mars" is even more chilling. The mysterious stone pestle seems to be a totem of some kind of extraterrestrial civilization, and the scattered machinery and batteries reflect the pioneering spirit of the first generation of alien immigrants.
After nightfall, the cold wind in the Mars camp was howling, and I gave up the idea of camping and watching the sunrise of "Mars", and drove back to the Xisha line on the same road, and stayed at Xitaijinel Lake for one night.
I was woken up by the chirping lake gulls by the lake early in the morning, and this place has left Mangya and arrived in Dachaidan Town.
Xitaijinel Lake is also a salt lake. The lake is 11 kilometers long. The road divides the lake into two. The magic is that the color of the lake on the left and right sides is different. The left side is green, and the right side is blue. If the weather is clearer, the color will be more obvious. .
60 kilometers to the east of Xitai Jiner Lake is Dongtai Jiner Lake. The water of the lake is transparent and pure, and it is known as "China's Maldives". However, it has been closed since June, which is a small regret of this trip.
(Jinel Lake in Dongtai, the picture comes from the Internet)
There is a water Yadan scenic spot between the East and West Lakes.
Yadan is generally a landform in arid areas. The Qaidam Yadan landform along National Highway 315 (Xisha Line) originated from lake sediments in the late Tertiary and early Quaternary 75 million years ago. There are Kunlun Mountains in the south of this place. , there are Altun Mountains in the west and Qilian Mountains in the east. Due to the uplift of the plate geological movement and separation from the water body, the climate is humid and the annual rainfall is less than 20 mm. During this period, the salt and sand condense and the crust is sculpted by wind erosion.
In 2007, the Nalengele River, which originated from the Kunlun Mountains, was diverted due to a flood, and finally formed a unique water Yadan landscape in the Qaidam Yadan landform group in the world.
Water Yardang is also called Wusute Yardang Geological Park. The Yardang landforms dotted in the water form "Penglai Fairy Island", "Monkey Island" and "West Sea Fleet" and other image landscapes, which are vivid, spectacular and fascinating. There are also a small amount of aquatic plants such as reeds distributed along the water, and there are wild Yadan fish and plateau crabs in the water. Every summer and autumn, thousands of wild ducks and lake gulls gather here. ".
Yadan on the Gobi makes people think it is an exotic planet, while Yadan in the Gobi Lake gives the impression of a fairy island in the sea. With artificial scenery such as boats and docks, it makes people feel like they are crossing from the Gobi to the sea.
There are "surprises" everywhere on National Highway 315. Just after passing "Devil City" and "Penglai Fairy Island", and then 120 kilometers to the east, we reached the U-shaped highway known as "China's version of Highway 66".
We have already walked through "Route 66" in Zhongwei, Ningxia, and introduced the source of the name "Route 66". In fact, there is no special meaning. If a road landscape is beautiful enough to become a "net celebrity attraction", it can be called "Route 66". It's "Route 66".
The beauty of the U-shaped highway is that the slope has a large ups and downs, and the downhill and uphill routes form a U-shape. In fact, this "U-shape" is not as obvious as some online photos. I don't know who was the first to make a "cheat" and set this section of road on fire after it was released, attracting tourists to stop and take pictures. The scenery is average and quite dangerous, which makes the local traffic control department quite worried, and heavy fines can't stop the enthusiasm. People often follow the crowd irrationally, and others say yes, even if he can't see it, he will say yes.
Continue eastward for 50 kilometers, and at the intersection of Xisha Line and Liuge Expressway, you can see the blue Xiaochaidan Lake. Although it is overcast, the color of the lake is still bright, and there are many lake gulls by the lake.
Turn south at Xiaochaidan, pass the Wanzhang Salt Bridge to Golmud City, rest for one night, and take a section of the Qinghai-Tibet line the next day, cross the Kunlun Mountain Pass, and arrive at Hoh Xil.
Early the next morning, I traveled 30 kilometers south from Golmud to the Nanshankou Scenic Area of the Kunlun Mountains Geological Park. Kunlun Mountain Geopark starts from Luotuogou in the east, reaches West Queen Mother Yaochi in the west, reaches Kunlun Mountain Pass in the south, and reaches Nanshan Pass in the north, with an altitude of 3022 meters to 6178 meters and an area of more than 7000 square kilometers. It consists of four scenic spots. Such a large scenic spot (roughly equivalent to the size of Guangzhou), it is impossible to complete it in one day, we will follow the Qinghai-Tibet line to see the scenery from Nanshan Pass to Kunlun Mountain Pass.
Nanshankou Scenic Area is located in the northeast of the park. It is characterized by many lifelike pictographic rocks, canyons, terraces and other water-eroded landforms. In addition to geological relics, there are also many cultural landscapes in the scenic area, such as the relics of early human activities on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau—— Sanchakou Microlithic Cultural Site, Sancha River Bridge, one of the highest railway bridges in the world, etc. They echo and complement each other with geological relics, forming a magnificent picture scroll of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
Not long before, we arrived at Kunlun Shenquan, which is 3,700 meters above sea level, and there is a clear spring flowing, which is not frozen all year round.
Legend has it that when Princess Wencheng entered Tibet, she encountered wind, sand and smog, and was unable to move forward. Lu Dongzan, the minister who welcomed her, paid homage to the princess and said that this is a sacred mountain, which can only be passed through by pious worship. The princess got down from the chariot and enshrined the Buddha statue invited from Chang'an on a platform for worship. Suddenly, a clear spring gushed out from in front of the Buddha statue, shaped like a lotus flower in a pagoda. This is the Kunlun Spring.
The spring water has constant water temperature, balanced water volume, sweet and mellow water quality, crystal clear and transparent, and is known as "Iceberg Manna". Experts have identified that most of the Kunlun mountain springs are pure natural high-quality mineral water with high strontium content, which has the function of preventing cardiovascular diseases and the effect of health care and beauty, so it has the reputation of "holy water on earth".
20 kilometers west of the Kunlun holy spring comes to Wuji Dragon and Phoenix Palace.
Known as the "ancestor of all mountains", Kunlun Mountain occupies an irreplaceable position in Chinese civilization. It gave birth to the Kunlun myth, and the Kunlun School of Taoism also originated here. The Wuji Dragon and Phoenix Palace is the holy place for the Kunlun Taoists. There are many believers who believe in the Kunlun sect in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the southeast of China, and they travel thousands of miles to come here every year for pilgrimage.
The Kunlun School of Taoism has a history of thousands of years. It is named after the mountain and is an independent school. One theory is that the Kunlun School originated from the period of King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty. The ancestor of the sect, Yuanshi had twelve disciples, who were the 12 ancestors of the Kunlun sect, and later the Kunlun sect was divided into two schools, the east and the west, both of which belonged to Taoism.
In addition to cultural landscapes, there are also many special landforms along the Qinghai-Tibet line. One of the larger frost heave mounds. Frost heaving mound is when the groundwater is blocked by the top frozen layer, it concentrates from the place with high freezing pressure to the place with low freezing pressure, gathers along the fault structure and continuously upwells and freezes, resulting in the uplift of the surface to form a hilly terrain.
When approaching the Kunlun Mountain Pass, it suddenly snowed heavily, and the visibility was only a few tens of meters. I was not driving fast and encountered traffic jams several times. I thought it was dangerous to take the Xinzang line before, but it seems that the Qinghai-Tibet line is more dangerous than it is.
Soon arrived at the Kunlun Mountain Pass at an altitude of 4,767 meters, and crossed the mountain pass to the south to reach the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve, which also belongs to the newly established Sanjiangyuan National Park, the largest of the five national parks. From then on, more than 200 kilometers southward is the source of the Yangtze River.
Standing at the Kunlun Mountain Pass, the view is slightly wider. The vast Kunlun Mountains are majestic, cold and winter in four seasons, covered with snow, mountains are continuous, and thousands of mountains are in the sky. Thousands of peaks and valleys are like horses in silver-gray armor. With the wind and clouds surging, roll forward.
500 meters south of the mountain pass, there is a sculpture of a man embracing an antelope, and the figure is Jessan Sonam Dajie.
A movie called "Koke Xil" released in 2004 tells the story of the struggle between Tibetan volunteers and poachers in Hoh Xil. The prototype of the volunteer leader in the film is Sonam Dajie.
Jessan Sonam Dajie (1954-1994), Qinghai Zhiduo. He used to be the deputy secretary of the Zhiduo County Party Committee of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. In 1992, he founded the Zhiduo County Western Work Committee to carry out ecological conservation work in the Hoh Xil area. On January 18, 1994, he died in a fight with poachers. Sonam Dajie's body was buried here, continuing to watch over the beautiful creatures in Hoh Xil.
After a generation of Hoh Xil people's hard work and strict protection, there has been no poaching case since 2009. The number of Tibetan antelopes has increased from less than 20,000 to 70,000, becoming a beautiful scenery on the Qinghai-Tibet Line.
I didn’t see Tibetan antelopes when I went, but I saw a lot of Tibetan wild donkeys. When there were few cars on the road, they would cross the road. It seemed that I was used to the living environment of cars.
After descending the mountain, we arrived at the Hoh Xil Fields. It was like two worlds. The wind and snow disappeared, replaced by cloudy and sunny. The weather in Hoh Xil is amazing! It was still drenched in the rain a moment ago, and suddenly entered the sunny zone while walking. This has something to do with the clouds that cover the sky with some holes. The clouds are moving slowly. When the holes move to the top of the head, the sky will be clear in an instant, but there is still a large shadow on the land not far away.
Hoh Xil is Mongolian, meaning "green mountain ridge", also known as "beautiful girl", and in Tibetan it is called "Aqin Gongjia", which means "the barren land under the Kunlun Mountains in the north". Hoh Xil has a total area of 45,000 square kilometers and an average altitude of more than 4,600 meters. It is called "the third pole of the world". It is an important catchment area in the north of the source of the Yangtze River. The most perfectly preserved and typical area of wilderness landscape.
Not long after traveling on the wilderness road, we came to the Sonam Dajie Protection Station.
This protection station was built in the second year after Suonan Dajie's death. As the forefront base of anti-poaching work in Hoh Xil, it has promoted the process of protecting the Tibetan antelope in Hoh Xil. Most of the people who come to work here are volunteers. There are seven months of freezing throughout the year, and the lowest temperature in winter can reach minus 45 degrees Celsius. If you eat a little slower, the bowl will freeze into ice balls, and the raw eggs in the kitchen will be thrown on the ground. Can bounce like a ping pong ball...
Nowadays, with the ban on poaching, this place has become a scenic spot on the Qinghai-Tibet line. The small houses are equipped with an introduction to Hoh Xil. There are no more poaching gunshots here, but the harshness of nature remains the same. When one is curious or arrogant When his life was buried in the snow-capped mountains, quicksand and mud, it seemed to silently and solemnly declare: I can only be awed, not conquered.
After the Sonam Dajie Protection Station, drive back to Golmud. What are the unexpected beauty of Qinghai, let us see you next time.
