Xinjiang is a picturesque place all year round. Some people love the spring when all things are revived, and the apricot blossoms in the Ili Grassland and the Pamirs are in full bloom; In the autumn when melons and fruits are harvested, Kanas is rendered into a colorful oil painting; and I love the quiet winter, especially the winter in northern Xinjiang, which is like a world in a fairy tale, satisfying all my imagination of the snow country.
The Snow Country is frozen, Sailimu Lake seems to be enchanted, and everything is still. In this white world, the water of Swan Spring is steaming and playing freely in the lake. The surrounding trees have been frozen into frost and brilliant snowflakes are blooming. The Zhaosu Grassland is covered in white, and in the freezing cold, only Zhaosu Tianma strolls leisurely. Kanas, which is far away from the border, has another beautiful scene, which is comparable to Northern Europe. It is the snow scene that surprised me during this trip.
According to the usual practice, first upload a batch of beautiful pictures ~ see if northern Xinjiang will let you plant grass in winter?
⬆️The ice surface of Sailimu Lake
⬆️Zhaosu's "Pegasus"
⬆️Hiking on the ice surface of Yuhu Lake
⬆️Snow scene in Kanas
⬆️Swan Lake in the morning
⬆️Tex Bagua City
⬆️The fox in the snow
⬆️The snow scene of Hemu Village
⬆️Snow Field in Zhaosu
⬆️The car for this trip
Yining Centennial Blue Old Town, Kazanqi
Every trip to Xinjiang is not easy. After flying from Shanghai to Urumqi, I took the high-speed train to Yining to start this journey. Standing in the middle of the Ili River Valley, which is also known as "South of the Great Wall", in the urban area of this small border town of the motherland, there is an old city called Kazanqi, which has a history of one hundred years and still retains the original Uyghur flavor here. traditional way of life.
The alleys are full of blue door panels and window lattices, blue doors and exterior walls. The main color of Kazanqi's houses and buildings is blue, which reminds me of Chefchaouen in Morocco.
Walking in Kazanqili in winter, the white snow is covered with blue eaves, which makes the place even more fairy tale.
Walking in the streets and alleys, there are scenery everywhere, and they are also traces of the years. There are no overly commercial streets here, and everything is still the same as before. The children played in the alley, greeted us enthusiastically, picked up the camera, and flocked to it. A girl even took their blue cat out to take a photo. It was so cute.
This group of kids kept waving to me and followed me for several street corners. It turned out that they wanted to show me his pet: a cute English short😊
Frozen Sailimu Lake
Sailimu Lake: the last place favored by the warm and humid Atlantic air, it is known as "the last tear of the Atlantic Ocean". It is a high-speed road from Yining to Sailimu Lake. The road conditions were good at the beginning, but when approaching the Sailimu Lake Scenic Area, it began to pass through the road section covered with dark ice, and even many roads were completely covered by snow because there were few people driving in winter, and the road became more and more difficult to drive.
The way to Sailimu Lake will pass through Guozigou, which is the natural gateway of Ili. Sailimu Lake goes north, and Ili River Valley goes south. The scenery is beautiful. In summer, Guozigou is called the most beautiful valley in Ili by tourists. In winter here, the forest is covered with snow, and the winding mountain road is full of snow, the scenery is very similar to the Swiss snow mountains.
This cable-stayed bridge with twin towers and double cable planes and steel truss girders is the first cable-stayed bridge in Xinjiang. It has become a beautiful scenery of Guozigou. Known as one of the most beautiful and breathtaking bridges in the world.
Crossing the Guozigou Bridge, Sailimu Lake is in front of you. I have seen Sailimu Lake in summer, which is a sapphire surrounded by Tianshan Mountains, but Sailimu Lake in winter has a special taste, the snow country is frozen, and the 458 square kilometers of the lake are all frozen into ice, which is extremely dazzling in the winter sun. , The ice and the sky are the same color, and it is hard to tell the snow mountain or the lake. Now here is like a magical world, as if it has been enchanted, everything is still.
Sailimu Lake in winter is sparsely populated. Unfortunately, the lake is now surrounded by fences and can only be entered from the east gate. Due to the epidemic, entering Sailimu Lake here requires an accounting and testing report on the same day. Checking in Sailimu Lake Hotel has to be done again Nucleic acid testing, although very troublesome, but the beauty of winter is so charming, nature spelled out this magnificent ice lake with the most exquisite skills.
The sunset fell on the lake that day, and the picture was really full of dreams.
dream swan lake
Different from the ice-covered Sailimu Lake, on the other side of the Ili River Valley, the lake surface is steaming and sparkling. Hundreds of swans are looking for food, playing and dancing in the morning light. This is the ballet of nature "Swan Lake". , staged in Yining Swan Spring dream.
Every year from early October to April of the following year, swans come to live in winter on the north bank of Yili River in Xiaheleke Village, Yingtamu Township. This is an underground hot spring, which does not freeze in winter. The swans dancing on the lake interpret the melody of winter with the most graceful dance, break the silence, and add a dreamy vitality to the cold winter.
Before coming here, the pictures on the Internet were almost all swans. It may be that the hot springs here also attracted other birds. Now there are hundreds of wild ducks enjoying the hot springs here.
Finally the perfect light and timing arrived, a winter sunrise framing two black swans.
The best time to shoot Swan Lake is in the early morning. In winter, the sunrise is very late at ten o'clock, and the business hours are also ten o'clock. If you are lucky, you can encounter morning fog and rime, but unfortunately there are no such days.
TIPS:
Address: Swan Spring Park, Xiaheleke Village, Yingtamu Township, Yining
Transportation: There is no public transportation in the urban area of Yining, so you can only drive by yourself or charter a car. It takes about 2 hours to drive
Accommodation: Here are several simple B&Bs for photographers
Tickets: 20 yuan
Note: It is forbidden to fly drones here, drones will scare the swans away.
Pegasus in Zhaosu Grassland
Few people come to Zhaosu Grassland in winter. After the winter solstice, the prairie is covered with snow and covered with snow, and everything is silent. But in Zhaosu, the herdsmen drove their horses galloping across the boundless snow field, and the horseshoes rolled up the flying snow mist like a rainbow.
The herdsmen drive their horses back and forth between the pastures, forming a unique beauty against the backdrop of the white snow, which has become a unique winter scenery in the local area. I was attracted by a video of thousands of horses galloping on the grassland, and wanted to see the Zhaosu Tianma in this winter.
Yili Zhaosu Grassland is known as the "Hometown of Tianma in China", and a grand Tianma Festival is held here every July. Although it is a pity that I did not see the galloping Tianma, I was also lucky to see the Zhaosu Tianma in winter
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Zhaosu's Tianma is tall and strong, with big eyes, wide forehead, straight nose, small and sensitive ears, and it runs like flying. Tianma is very courageous. We drove past Tianma without avoiding it. Maybe the horses here are racehorses and are used to human contact.
Some even took a keen interest in our car. 😊
In fact, during this time in Yili, the temperature was above minus ten degrees, which was still relatively warm, especially at noon, and it was still a bit hot to wear a down jacket. But on the morning of watching the horses in Zhaosu, the weather changed suddenly after playing with the Tianmas for a long time, and the temperature unexpectedly reached minus 25 degrees.
It was so cold that I quickly hid in the car and turned on the air conditioner and seat heating functions!
Looking at the interior of this Lynk & Co 01 with nothing to do, the overall style is trendy, with a sense of technology and freshness. The electronic gear lever is lighter, the 12.3-inch central control screen is more conspicuous, and most of the function buttons in the car are integrated in the middle partition area, which is also very convenient to operate.
Hiking Zhaosu's Minor Fairy Lake
Zhaosu is a treasure destination, few people visit it, but it hides a lot of beautiful scenery. The most beautiful hiking route in Xinjiang, the Xiata Ancient Road, is here, and there is also a beautiful small lake, Yuhu, hidden around Zhaosu.
As its name suggests, the lake has different colors throughout the year due to different lighting conditions. In summer, it looks like a piece of sapphire. However, during the freezing period from the end of November to April of the next year, the entire lake surface presents a rare blue ice.
In winter, the road is closed here, vehicles are not allowed to enter, you can only go there on foot, and you can walk to the ice in winter. Although it is not far, there are no signs along the way. If there are locals, it is best to go with them.
If there is no one, walk along the side of the road until you reach a place where there is a yurt in the management office. Walk down the mountain road on the left. It is a stone road. It is easy to slippery when covered with snow in winter. You have to walk slowly and walk all the way. Stop and go, almost half an hour, you can reach the ice.
It has always been a pity that I missed the trip to Lake Baikal due to a coincidence in 2019 and was unable to walk on the frozen lake. At first, I was a little worried, but I walked in and tried it with a stone, only to find that the ice is so thick that vehicles should be able to drive.
This is a natural skating rink. Even the non-slip shoes are quite slippery. The entire Blue Lake is covered with layers of white snow. We can vaguely see aquatic plants and water trees at the bottom of the lake. It feels that the ice is not very thick, only half a meter. I am a little worried that the ice will crack. From time to time, I heard strange noises from the bottom of the lake. There were only me and my friend here, which added a sense of tension. In fact, the strange noises were methane and other gases released by the plants at the bottom of the lake. This beautiful ice bubble.
TIPS:
1. You can only go there by car, about an hour's drive south from Zhaosu County.
2. It is not open in winter, and the management staff will point you to a hiking trail.
3. You must wear non-slip shoes for hiking. The ice surface is still dangerous. Please be careful not to go alone.
Fairy Tale World Kanas
This is not Finland or Norway, but Kanas in winter. This is a beautiful place all year round. The snow country in fairy tales.
Hemu Village in winter is no longer colorful, the natural scenery has been subtracted, and the cabins in the ice and snow are like an ink painting. The severe cold of minus 20 degrees could not cool down the excitement in my heart.
It is especially recommended to come to Kanas in winter. The scenic spots in winter are free. Kanas Hemu Baihaba does not charge tickets. It is no longer limited by the time of the battery car in the scenic spot. In winter, you can drive everywhere in Kanas and play as you like. You can stop and play as you like. . There are few people in the cold weather, and there are almost no people driving all the way. Avoiding the flow of people in the peak season, almost contracted the entire scenery. Compared with the national day period, the cabins cost more than 1,000, and the off-season can basically be lived in for two to three hundred. The accommodation is very cheap, but the meals are still more expensive, and the price doubles.
TIPS:
1. Self-driving must be a four-wheel drive vehicle with snow tires. Almost all winding mountain roads along the way are covered with ice and snow. Without snow tires, it will be very slippery. Even with snow tires, some roads with ice will still be a bit slippery. You must not drive too fast. Along the way, I saw a car driving too fast, and the corner got stuck in the snow.
2. The temperature is around minus 20 to minus 5 degrees, which is still relatively cold. You must wear gloves, hats and scarves. A pair of non-slip snow boots is very important. The cabin is very warm, so don’t worry about the cold indoors
end
I think we are eager to travel, maybe just to get closer to the ancient and turbulent nomadic civilization. It's not novelty hunting, it's just feeling, it's just nostalgia. I miss any kind of civilization that has been staged on our land. In northern Xinjiang in winter, the vast white world is silent and stirring, everything here seems to be about to disappear, and remains unchanged forever.
