Embarrassed to fly
Hello everyone, I am a traveler who was kidnapped by China Eastern Airlines Xpress. Ever since I bought Xpress, I feel the pain of losing money every weekend. Lao Xie and I are both kidnapped in this way, but since Xpress can’t bring babies, we have been going online at midnight every day since July, searching for all kinds of domestic The route you can fly at will.
At first we wanted to go to Guilin, Yulonghe. We drifted on the beautiful Yulong River on a small bamboo raft together, what a wonderful and leisurely scene.
Later, after asking local friends in various directions, August is not a good tourist season in Yangshuo. So, where is the sunny day in the vast land of China?
While we were searching, Xinjiang closed its doors, and the war epidemic went away. Inner Mongolia was also visited by other traveling partners of the team. At this time, I saw a travel note - "The Star Chaser Team Drives Qinghai, Exploring the Secrets of the Qaidam Basin", which is the most beautiful picture I have seen so far. travelogue.
So the trip to Qaidam was decided.
Choice of travel mode
1. Chartered car.
The most common way to travel to Qinghai is to charter a car. A chartered car means that the driver takes the car with the tourists according to the route customized by the driver. The most common is to pack an SUV, so a group can seat 4 people, and there are also minibuses, vans, and buses. Fuel costs and tolls are borne by the driver. During the peak season, the daily cost is about 800 yuan, and the daily distance that the driver can bear is no more than 600KM. The main lines generally include two main lines: chartered cars around Qinghai Lake and Qingan-Gansu Great Ring Road. This is also the way I chose to travel in the first place.
There are many ways to find a chartered car, such as orange software, friend recommendations and travel forums. I would recommend the former two more, because orange software and friends’ own experience will be more reliable. In forums and other Q&A posts, it is not ruled out that many of them are self-media marketing. (You can choose local travel agencies as much as possible to avoid resale)
However, chartered cars need to settle hotel reservations by themselves, and domestic "customized tours" are still in the "pseudo-customized" stage. In fact, the ability to formulate travel routes and daily arrangements based on the actual situation of tourists is still weak, and I am also Very locomotive character, I want to guide the chartered car routes given by others, and check the driving time, driving time, and scenery on both sides of each stop, so I finally ran down and felt like I was doing a guide for myself. It doesn't make a difference.
In the end, we gave up the "chartered car" because the hotels in the customized route were full for two days, but we are very grateful to the customer service staff who helped me customize the route in the middle of the night, Ms. Zhang Tian and the hotel reservation, as well as my partner Huang Jing and her Sister Guo, the chartered driver, gave me endless help in the stage of customizing my route.
2. Self-driving.
Compared with chartered cars, the degree of freedom is higher, the price is cheaper, and the degree of labor is also more difficult. In Qinghai, I would recommend SUV or off-road. Although the sedan is completely fine on the G315, there are still some washboard roads that require an SUV. In addition, you need to plan your own itinerary, book hotels, etc.
During the peak season, some remote and undeveloped scenic spots in Qinghai, the hotels in the surrounding towns are easily full, such as Shuishang Yadan and Mangya. But later I will talk about some ways that you can actually find a place to live temporarily. Because this trip brought the elderly and children, the hotel brother actually gave me some really amazing hotel choices when I booked the hotel.
There is a black gas station that really looks like the one in "No Man's Land". In other hotels, after I searched for the review photos, someone lifted the quilt and saw cockroaches. Still a little worried.
So I started to think about it - RV. It is also the way we travel in the end. The mainstream RVs are divided into B-class and C-class. The difference in appearance is that the C-class RV has a roof, like a C. The slum girl who wanted to save money at the beginning of the reservation actually wanted to book the B class. After all, there are only 4 of us, and I always feel that booking the C class is a bit extravagant. But, there is no car. Hahahahahaha, there is only one SAIC MAXUS RV80 left in the store. 7788 bargaining down 7300, including excluding deductible and cleaning fee, a total of 7 days.
Before booking, I searched for the introduction of RVs of the same model on Autohome, the introduction of RVs and other people’s strategies on Xiaohongshu, and I can accept it if I think it’s ok. So, the RV trip was decided.
3. Follow the group. The price of tour group in peak season is about 4000/person or less/7-day group. In fact, the price/performance ratio is also very high, and you will choose a more leisurely and easy route on the route. But there is a fatal disadvantage of joining a group, that is, there will be many people throughout the whole process, so the people in the same group will always be with you. So it's hard to have the kind of photos where you can't find people.
4. The train. In fact, this program is quite good! If you only go to friends in the Qaidam Basin, I suggest that you can take the train from Xining to Golmud, and then rent a car in Golmud to go deep in Qaidam. This can save the 900KM journey from Xining to Qaidam. The overall self-driving fatigue will be greatly reduced. The reason we didn't choose at that time was because we had been entangled in the chartered car for so long that when I decided to drive from Golmud, Golmud had no car.
In fact, I also made a version of the guide, which is to drive from Xining to the Qaidam Basin, then change trains in different places in Golmud, and finally sleep back to Xining on the sleeper train at night. In this version of the guide, I found that the price of a car rental in a certain state is 20 times that of a car rental in a certain state. That's right, I didn't hit 0 more. The handling fee for returning a car in a certain state is more than 200, while that for a car rental in a certain state is more than 4,000, which is more expensive than the cost of renting a car. In the end, because the decision was made late, the Golmud pick-up point for a car rental in a certain state suddenly disappeared from the APP, and I didn't get it out after swiping for 3 days. In this regard, the car return + train plan in different places was abandoned.
line selection
There are two main routes for traveling in Qinghai, A: around Qinghai Lake, that is, with Qinghai Lake as the center, connecting the surrounding Laji Mountain, Kumbum Monastery, and Chaka Salt Lake.
The Qinghai Lake Ring Road should be 360KM. I wrote this number based on my impressions, because I read a bicycle riding guide before (it’s crazy), if the data is wrong, please correct me. That is, from the south side full of rape blossoms to the north side where I have never been, I can see Qinghai Lake from the bottom to the sky in a 360-degree all-round way without dead ends. It is more suitable for a 3-5 day tour. The time is too long. It is estimated that Qinghai Lake will also be embarrassed.
B: Qinggan Grand Ring Road. This summer's hot route, it is said that out of 10 people in the circle of friends, 8 are traveling, 5 are in Qinghai, and 4 are on the Qingan-Gansu Great Ring Road.
This line mainly starts from Xining, bypasses the Qaidam Basin, passes through Dunhuang, passes through Jiayuguan and Zhangye, and returns to Xining.
During this process, deletions or additions will be made according to time and budget. The following is the route of the Qingan-Gansu Grand Ring Road that I saw on the orange software:
The following two pictures are the routes with the in-depth tour of Qaidam, that is, the Yadan on the water from Dongtai Jiner to the northwest, Xitai Jiner, Mangya Emerald Lake and Devil's Eye, all of which are branch lines.
You can also intersperse the Mars Camp and Yadan Devil City. I suggest chartering a car or going with a convoy in these two places, because there is no serious road, and it is easy to get stuck in the sand or go the wrong way.
You can also intersperse the Hoh Xil route and so on.
The following is the route I ended up drawing myself. It is not very good in the field of self-driving, because it is all backtracking.
The following is the route I finally took. Compared with before the trip, I made three optimizations.
The first optimization is to delete the itinerary of Mount Cliff Emerald Lake and Devil's Eye. I never expected that I chose a RV because the hotel in Mangya was not easy to book, and because the road to Mangya and Devil's Eye was too bumpy and the RV could not be adapted, I finally chose to give up. Of course, the more important reason is that the drone I borrowed is really... I overestimated its strength. So in view of the angle that we couldn’t take aerial photography even after going to the Devil’s Eye, we gave up this route and planned to put it in the future trip to Hoh Xil.
The second optimization point is to alleviate the insufficiency and boredom of going back. I modified the destination of the return trip according to the destination of the previous trip, and tried to make the place of stay different every night, so as to cause "we are actually taking different routes." illusion. The scenic spot arranged for the return trip was very temporary, and the homework was not done well, which led to two failures. I will write it down below for everyone to avoid pitfalls.
The third optimization point is because the time has suddenly increased by 2 days. Combined with the problem of a large number of people in some popular scenic spots, the overall rhythm has been slowed down. I chose to go to the scenic spots in the early morning or sunset, avoiding a large number of tourists and taking a lot of photos. Aerial photos, I'm pretty happy with that myself.
Tips for RV parent-child travel
The RV was booked on a certain pig. I found two different stores with different prices but pointed to the same store. The price difference between the two is about 100 yuan per day, so it is worth comparing prices carefully. The Xining caravan camp is located in the sports park, so water and refueling are not allowed. The camp provides rental services for picnic tables, quilts and other items at a reasonable price.
To pick up the car, you need to prepare a Class C driver's license, ID card, and credit card under the driver's name. To pick up the car, you need to swipe the credit card under the driver's name to pre-authorize 10,000 yuan, which will be released when you return the car, and then swipe 5,000 yuan for violations Pre-granted, released after one month.
In addition to checking the appearance and the general performance of the vehicle when picking up the car, remember to check whether the bathroom can be used normally, whether the awning of the vehicle can be folded normally, and whether the locks of each cabinet are normal.
Before setting off, I read a lot of guides. One vlogger said that he woke up from the cold in the middle of the night, so he brought a quilt, but he didn’t take it out at all. Except that it was a bit cold at night when camping on Laji Mountain, the quilts that came with the caravan were sufficient for the rest of the time.
The model we rented was SAIC MAXUS RV80, with a length of 5.97 meters and designed by the length of the car with the C photo on it. So when you first get started, you may feel a little uncomfortable (but just imagine yourself as an Iveco driver)
At the rear of the car is a bunk bed with a width of about 1 meter. On the top of the cab is a star bed with a width of about 1.5 meters but a relatively low height. The four-seater table in the center can be lowered at night to become a 1.5-meter-wide bed. bed. Then there are 4 berths and 6 seats in total.
There is a bathroom inside the C-type RV, with toilet, hand washing and shower. The shower can be heated by diesel fuel to quickly burn hot water for bathing. There is also an open kitchen (well, a small induction cooker and a washstand), with a small refrigerator below.
What I was worried about at the beginning was whether the RV would be unsafe if camping in the wild. In fact, most of the time you can always find a parking lot for camping. The price of the RV camp is about 100/night. If it is a wild camp, local herdsmen Those who provide simple water sources and toilets are about 20-50/night.
It is recommended to download "Wowo", which is also an artifact that accompanies us all the way. It is a sharing app that camping friends across the country will share the location and facilities on it when they find a good camping place. Very, very easy to use. I have been looking for water-filled, safe, and free RV camping sites all the way, and they all rely on Wowo. Of course, I also fed back some nests on the app. If you also take the Qinghai line, you might still see my nests~
The biggest difficulty in the RV is actually adding water. The water added to the RV cannot be used for food, so it is still necessary to purchase bottled water for cooking and cleaning vegetables and fruits. The water tank is huge, so it takes 20 minutes to fill it up with the tap in normal use. But if you encounter the same situation as our first stop in Waterloo, holding cold water that doesn’t match at all, and adding only 25% of the water after adding it for an hour, your life will really collapse.
therefore! ! It is recommended that if you choose to travel in an RV, you can buy a universal faucet online before you go out, and then buy some sewage tank degradation agents to bring with you.
//[The following is a tasteful text]
After we picked up the car, the smell of the black water tank was so strong that we couldn’t even open the door of the toilet. Afterwards, it’s not like adults can control children going to the toilet (of course, adults also have three urgent times). If they encounter it,
Then the handling of this black water tank really makes people doubt life.
Here I would like to thank my teammate - he worked tirelessly throughout the whole process to deal with everyone's black water tank, and made an unparalleled contribution to the cleanliness and sanitation of the RV. I hereby commend him.
//And some TIPS:
1. Don't bring too big suitcases, you can bring more luggage bags. Because most of the B-class and C-class motorhomes do not have luggage space, only a lot of storage cabinets. We brought a 28-inch suitcase because there was no place to put it. After taking the things out, we put them on my mother's lower bunk the whole time.
2. Before departure, pack the luggage according to the purpose, so as to avoid the need to organize things when getting on the bus. Basically equivalent to a small move.
3. If you are traveling in summer, there is no need to rent tables and chairs for outdoor picnics. Because it is too hot at noon and too cold at sunset, there is no right time to use it.
//About another travel tips:
Share with friends in Puxi an artifact "Xiaoqiang Parking". We used to take a taxi when we went to Pudong by plane. It is estimated that friends in Pudong also take a taxi when they come to Hongqiao. But if the time is not so right, in fact, sometimes it is difficult to take a taxi. Secondly, it is really expensive to take a taxi, but if you drive, the parking at the two airports is really expensive.
This time, I accidentally saw "Xiaoqiang Parking" somewhere. It is a small parking integration program for long-term parking near airports and railway stations. The price of parking is about 15 yuan per day, including pick-up and drop-off. The parking lot is usually outdoors, and some indoor parking lots are more expensive. This time we parked for 8 days, a total of 120, which is generally more free than taking a taxi.
Travel Records DAY1 Night Exploration of Qinghai Lake Camping
Due to the delay of the plane and the purchase of supplies, we did not set off from Xining to Qinghai Lake until 4 pm on the first day. The south bank of Qinghai Lake is basically commercialized because it is on the edge of the national highway and the only way to Chaka Salt Lake.
The commercialization here is not a souvenir shop or a McDonald's drive-in restaurant, but the entire lakeside one kilometer away from Qinghai, which is surrounded by fences by the surrounding herdsmen, planting rapeseed flowers and white yaks, and each family makes some Unique photo booth. For example, the words "Beautiful Qinghai", or swings, etc., the closer you are to the Erlang God, oh no, the Erlang Sword Scenic Spot, the more distinctive the herdsmen's self-built photo check-in points, quite a kind of random flowers that gradually become charming. impulse.
The roadside is filled with the smell of yaks and the smiles of tourists. I reluctantly got out of the car and looked at it for a while. I didn’t have time to ask the price of taking pictures of rape flowers and walking to the lake. I took a few photos of my mother with my son on my shoulders. Went to Erlangjian Scenic Area.
After arriving at the scenic spot, there are cars and people everywhere. As soon as our RV drove in, there were a lot of uncles around to ask about the experience of the RV. Since there were too many people and cars, we barely added water for an hour in the toilet in the parking lot of the scenic spot, and then decided to continue driving.
On the map, I saw that Huanhu West Road by Qinghai Lake is the road closest to Qinghai Lake. Seeing that the sun has started to cool down, it is unlikely to go to Chaka Salt Lake according to the original plan, so I decided to drive to Huanhu West Road. Camping on Sunrise Point.
As we drove forward, the sun gradually set. The dazzling sun that was still showing off its power in the sky a few minutes ago disappeared into the blue Qinghai Lake in a blink of an eye. Without the direct rays of the golden sunlight, Qinghai Lake began to show a blue color that I had never seen in nature. That's right, it's haze blue, or ultramarine blue. It's not like the deep purple starlight I've seen in New Zealand's night sky, nor is it like the pure sky blue in the Grand Canyon of the United States I've seen, and it's not even like the floating sea in the Philippines. Smells of sea blue.
Qinghai Lake after sunset, with its unique gentle posture, gave me a light, gentle blue. At the junction of skylight and lake color, I actually had tears in my eyes. Well, I am such a Pisces literary young woman who is easily moved by the scenery.
I remember the first time I was moved by the scenery. It was a century-old wooden boat floating between the mountains of King Lake. The captain stopped all the sounds of the boat and played a saxophone for us. Between the valley and the emerald lake, Only when the melodious music floated back and forth, and I tasted tears on my face, did I know that the tears of life are not only from sadness, but also from tears of joy, and are actually moved by the scenery.
Far away, the sky is getting darker and darker. On the way from Erlangjian Scenic Spot to the sunrise viewing point, you will pass through many small towns or villages. There are many guest houses where you can live, so even if you don’t book accommodation on the travel website, There is no need to worry about sleeping on the streets.
While the Internet has made our travel more convenient, it has also robbed us of our ability to adapt. We met a bonfire party in a small town. The weather was too cold and we didn’t participate. We only ate a bowl of ramen, a fried vegetable with yellow mushrooms, and 6 skewers of mutton skewers in the small restaurant opposite. The taste of the ramen is really average, and the earthy smell of yellow mushrooms is not my favorite taste, but the lamb skewers are very suitable for children's tastes, and it can be regarded as a hot meal.
In this small restaurant, we met a father and daughter who are also RV dealers. The father brought his daughter who is in elementary school and a family of three friends, and the five of them drove the caravan together, taking the Qingan-Gansu Great Ring Road. After we met, they were going to continue driving to the originally planned Chaka. Dad said that it is always open in turn, and the children can rest assured to sleep. Suddenly, I felt that most of the fathers in the world also took up the dirty work.
Thanks to Wowo's guidance, we finally found a wild caravan camp on the side of Huanhu West Road, which is run by local herdsmen. Water and toilets are provided for one night, 50 yuan. It was already very dark, and we couldn't see what was around at all. We could only see that it was very close to Qinghai Lake with Baidu Maps, so we stopped to clean up.
This night, we stumbled upon a huge skylight on the roof of the cab, where we could lie in bed and watch the stars. This is also the first time my children have seen a sky full of stars since they have impressions. Although he saw the most beautiful starry sky in New Zealand when he was one year old, and even went back to his grandma’s house in Zhangjiakou to see the starry sky, but he doesn’t remember it anyway, so let’s regard it as the first time he saw it.
Except for me and my children, my husband and my mother are not interested in the starry sky. After the two of us lay on the bed and looked at it for a while, we put on our clothes and went outside the RV to look at the stars. The scumbag night scene of the Apple mobile phone really can't capture the complete starlight, so I can only barely take this "boy under the stars" while the children are bouncing around in the cold.
Travel Records DAY2 Qinghai Lake Sunrise Emerald Lake Sunset
Since I fell asleep with the starlight on my pillow the night before, I woke up with the sunshine the next morning. At the same time, it was accompanied by my high reaction. The slight high reaction is that I feel that there is a ball of cotton in my throat. When I am panting, I always feel that the air seems to be filtered, and it does not completely enter my chest cavity. Tired is the most direct feeling of my high-reverse.
Lying down was really out of breath, so I simply got up. The children also woke up together, and when they got out of the car, all the discomfort disappeared.
In front of our car is Qinghai Lake, and when we wake up, the sun has not yet risen. Without brushing our teeth, washing our face or eating, the four of us packed our tripods and walked along the path to Qinghai Lake to watch the sunrise.
The sunrise of Qinghai Lake is not as magnificent as Huangshan Mountain, it is still soft and gentle.
Of course, I'm only describing the day I saw. Because not long after watching the sunrise, it started to rain. After watching the sunrise, we went back to the camp and ate self-heating rice, added water and prepared to go.
During the refilling process, I chatted with other RVs in the camp for a while. I don’t know since when, I especially like this kind of meeting strangers on the way, we ask each other where we came from, where we are going, and we don’t ask other people, just discuss travel experience.
When we added water, we still encountered the problem of mismatching faucets. The aunt who came from Hebei with a self-driving trailer diagonally across the street lent us her magic tool for many years—the water leak.
The two RVs on the opposite side are self-driving from Jiangsu. They are two retired couples. They are very well equipped. They have transformed the RV into a complete Chinese-style residence. The kind that can be pulled out of the gas tank in the morning to make fried rice with eggs. The RV parked on our left is a family of four driving from Hong Kong. In the evening, they will set up a projector, watch an open-air movie at the campsite, and eat a self-service barbecue.
After making the preparations, everyone bid farewell to each other. You have your direction and I have my plan, and we may never see each other again.
Due to the delay of the trip the day before, we drove to the Chaka Salt Lake according to the original plan, and found that it was another scenic spot with a sea of people.
Immediately we decided to abandon the Chaka Salt Lake, and after having lunch in the parking lot, we drove directly to the Qaidam Basin and slept in the Dachaidan Emerald Lake.
The so-called Emerald Lake used to be (even now) a salt mining field, a magnesium sulfate subtype salt lake, and the third largest artificial lake in Haixi Prefecture, covering an area of more than 26 square kilometers, producing high-quality potassium, magnesium, lithium, etc. kind of element. Due to the different content of metal elements in each lake, the water of the lakes alternates in light green, emerald green and dark blue. In addition, the salt beds formed by crystallization are all around the lake, so it is very beautiful visually, like "God overturned the palette".
Emerald Lake is composed of small pools of different colors. The driving road is temporarily built by local people with mounds of soil, so it will be bumpy. There is currently no charge for the scenic spot, so there is no door. But at the entrance of the road, there are staff directing to make a detour. In fact, the place where the detour exits has the most beautiful scenery and the most abundant lake area. But we stopped and stationed when we circled to the innermost part. In the evening, the sun came out, and we crossed a small river and went to the lake area that was not accessible to traffic for a while. There was a place that looked like the Maldives, and I didn’t even think it was necessary to go to Dongtai Jinel Lake.
Now because this scenic spot has been added to the popular scenic spots of major tour groups and chartered car routes, there are also many tourists. Until the sun goes down, around 8 o'clock, the number of people gradually decreases.
Personally, I prefer natural landscapes on travel routes. If it is urban landscapes, I like cities with history, such as Rome, Florence, Beijing, and Xi'an, cities with many ancient buildings. Of course, the natural landscape will be more like some. But if the natural landscape is full of smiling faces of tourists, the scenery will be greatly reduced.
Here I will talk about the advantages of RV travel, living in scenic spots. You can see the sky scenery that you can’t see when there are many tourists during the day, you can see the quiet starry sky that people who rush to check in can’t see, and you can also see the quiet sunrise that you can’t see in time. You can close your eyes in valleys, lakesides, and seasides where there are no people, listen to the wind passing by, listen to the whispers of small animals, and feel yourself as a "creature" on the earth.
But it was raining at the night of Emerald Lake. When I got up in the morning, I was a little worried that the dirt road would be more difficult to walk after being drenched in the rain, so I got up at 6 o'clock to check the road conditions.
(JDG who writes the weekly report in Emerald Lake↓)
After a night of rain, the top of the mountain was white. Clouds and mist surround the mountainside. I left my mother here to watch the car yesterday. The tourists haven’t come yet in the morning. I quickly pulled my mother up and took her out to take pictures.
After sunrise, the sky began to rain again, with a trend of getting bigger and bigger. We walked along the driveway to the next scenic spot. It was only at the exit that I discovered that this is the genuine scenic spot. There are toilets, the lake area is larger, the colors are richer, and there are many small vendors and tourists. But it was raining heavily, and only my mother braved the rain to compete with the aunts of the tour group, but the rain was too heavy, so she gave up in the end.
After replenishing at the only supermarket in Dachaidan Town, we started driving to the depths of the Qaidam Basin.
DAY3 Cross the Yadan landform from National Highway 315 and go directly to Xitaijinel Lake
Soon after getting out of Dachaidan and driving on 315, the vegetation on both sides of the road quickly disappeared and gradually raised various small mounds like small whales. This is the Yadan landform group.
Yardang landform is a kind of wind-eroded landform in dry areas. The ground formed by river and lake sediments, after weathering, intermittent water erosion and wind erosion, forms a combination of wind-eroded mounds and wind-eroded concave landforms parallel to the prevailing wind direction and arranged alternately. . The Yadan landform group in the west of the Qaidam Basin in China has the longest Yadan landform group in the world.
Because there are Yadan-like landforms distributed on extraterrestrial planets, such as on the Medusa trough layer near the Martian equator. Therefore, there is also a Mars camp in the depths of the Qaidam Basin. At the same time, the "Mars No. 1 Highway" has been built. There are aviation suits in the camp that can be rented to take pictures. It is called the most Mars-like place on earth. (The following is the network map, because we did not go)
Dongtai Jinel Lake, Water Yardang, and Xitai Jinel Lake are all on the way from National Highway 315 to Mangya. Let me talk about Xiamanya first. This name was given after the popularity of tourism in recent years. The original name: "Huatugou", which has attracted attention because of the nearby "Devil's Eye" sulfide geothermal spring. It was originally an oil town, but of course it is now deserted. up.
Accommodation in town is scarce and in poor condition and expensive. The hotel customer service accompanied me to search for resources and hotels for two early mornings, and finally helped me find the following hotel: I really laughed out loud after reading it. This hotel made me feel that I really went to the Qaidam wilderness to survive.
The road from Mangya to the Devil's Eye is 36 kilometers, and the navigation shows that it takes 3 and a half hours. When we rented the RV, we inquired whether the RV could adapt to the road conditions of this section of the road, and the camp suggested not to do so.
Because 36 kilometers are washboard roads. I didn't know what a washboard road was before I went. I thought it was a dirt road, which was bumpy and had some pits, not a peaceful road.
Later, about 1 kilometer away from the gate of Dachaidan, I saw the legendary washboard road.
Decisively gave up going to the Devil's Eye. On the other hand, the drone we borrowed was almost blown away by the wind in Qinghai Lake. Later, I checked the model and found that it was a domestic drone, which could not match the wind and rain in the wild. The third is because there are so many mosquitoes around the Devil's Eye, I am a little worried that the children will be bitten. So there is an extra two-day journey to and from.
Passing the U-shaped highway, it is really spectacular, with the feeling of Tongtian Avenue. We also shot some road films in the western United States and New Zealand, including when I went to Takamatsu, Japan.
But the U-shaped highway is part of the 315 National Highway after all. There are a lot of transport vehicles going back and forth, such as tank trucks and container trucks. In fact, the braking distance is very far when going downhill. In this case, taking pictures in the middle of the road is actually really It's very dangerous. During the days of going to Qinghai, Weibo has been reporting traffic accidents caused by taking pictures on U-shaped roads.
I would like to appeal to you that the scenery is beautiful, but when enjoying the beautiful scenery, please do not affect the safety of yourself and others. The beautiful scenery should be kept in the eyes and hearts, not in the circle of friends.
Since we are not going to Mangya, we decided to go to Kaxi Taijinel Lake first, and then go back. Xitaijinel Lake is crossed by the G315 National Highway, which splits the lake into two halves.
It is also a salt lake, a super-large lithium deposit dominated by brine, and the green side is bright green due to the high copper content of the lake. The lakeside is brine and saline-alkali land, and there are a lot of water birds gathering here.
When I arrived at Xitaijinel Lake, the sun was already shining in the west. Under the reflection of the sun, the Shuangse Lake was not obvious, and I didn’t dare to fly the drone because of the strong wind, for fear that it would leave me without saying a word. We looked around for a while and then withdrew.
That night, we camped in the parking lot of Yadan on the water, 20 yuan/car for overnight parking. There is a toilet in the parking lot, which is fairly clean. There is also a toilet next to the ticket hall, which will be cleaner and provide free hot water in the ticket hall.
In the evening, I still ate the self-heating small hot pot and self-heating rice, and then rested.
DAY 4 Unmanned Water Yardang and Dongtai Jinel Lake
Water Yardang is the only scenic spot that needs to be paid in the whole process. It can be purchased in advance on major travel platforms. Tickets are 50 and bus tickets are 70. In fact, it is not very far to walk inside, and you can go back and forth to see Yadan on the water in the scenic spot.
Although I bought a ticket, we almost walked back, so I decided whether to buy a ticket or not depending on the time I reserved.
According to the parking spots, Water Yardang is divided into four main viewpoints. In terms of grandeur, the sea fleet is the most spectacular, and in terms of distance, it is relatively close to the depths of Yadan, which is entered by riding a beach motorcycle.
Strolling on the water Yadan until noon, the children were sleepy, and had a buffet lunch in the customer service center (I personally think it is very cost-effective, I forgot the price hahaha), and then returned to the caravan to take a nap, near 4 pm, we Only then went to Dongtai Jinel Lake.
There are very few people in Dongtai Jinel Lake at this time.
Since Jinel Lake in Dongtai is a salt mining site, it is recommended that you wear sunglasses.
Because the refraction of the sun by salt land is no less than that of snow land. This lake is already very popular on the Internet. If there is any TIP, it seems that there are fewer people on the right side and the water is cleaner. There is a glass boat and a pier on the left that can be used as photo props, so there are relatively many people.
Below are some photos taken by walking to the right at the entrance.
At night we slept in the service area of Dongtai. There is a hotel parking lot where parking is free. There are toilets, but if you want to add water to the RV, it costs 30 times, we didn't add it.
DAY 5 Delingha overnight
I embarked on the return journey early this morning. I wanted to check in two small lakes-Tuosu Lake (National Bird and Wetland Protection Base) and Gahai (I thought the color was too beautiful when I came here). It turned out to be a coincidence. There was a flood a week before we came. Not only were all the trails entering Tuosu Lake and Gahai flooded, but we didn’t even enter Keluke Lake and the alien site, so we arrived early. In Delingha City, I went to Xihai Park for a stroll. The whole Delingha has a sense of abandonment. Although the fountains and squares in the city center are well constructed, although the roads are very spacious, although the night view project is also well done. Well, there's even a Ferris wheel, but it still can't hide a sense of desolation.
After playing for a long time in the 60 yuan private playground, the administrator followed us all the way, there was no need to queue up, and we could turn on whichever machine we wanted. The administrator told us that this was originally a project invested by a businessman in Hong Kong. , After a year of operation, no one played, so it was closed, but the park owner felt that the site was occupied and the park was not opened, which was not good for the park's landscape. The two parties discussed it for two years, and it was abandoned for two years. Finally reopened this year, managed and charged by the park. (I also added a desolate filter...it looks more abandoned)
The night view of Delingha is also very good.
Here are two recommended places to eat, one is the local No. 1 barbecue restaurant in Delingha—Lao Yan Roast Lamb, and the other is the bun shop on the side of the square. Every kind of stuffing is delicious, especially tofu, carrots, Beef, pork, scallions, eggplant—you see, I said that every stuffing is delicious...
DAY 6 Laji Mountain camping
Since we didn't go to Mangya, we had two more days in our itinerary, one day was given to Dongtai, and the other day we decided to go to Laji Mountain. Because I saw the lake and desert all the way, but I haven't seen the mountains yet, I always feel a little regretful. After passing through Xining and entering the road up the Laji Mountain, the scenery on both sides immediately showed a completely different landscape from before.
It was close to evening when we went up the mountain, but due to the continuous rain, when we drove to a crossroad, a thick fog suddenly appeared, how thick was it? That is, when the car coming from the opposite direction turns on its fog lights, we can only see it when it is one meter away from us. My teammates and I said, now we can be regarded as friends of life and death. My teammate bit the bullet and tried hard to drive forward. I stared at the navigation nervously, and told him in advance when I identified a sharp turn based on the route on the map, because the valley was on the right.
When it was on, the fog suddenly disappeared, and the sky cleared up, as if a giant dragon passed by just now to cover it.
But thanks to this fog, we got lost. Also because we got lost, we walked to a viewing platform, and the valley here is really more like Middle-earth than New Zealand.
After urgently seeking help from the audience outside the venue, according to a photo of a friend who had just been to Laji Mountain a few days ago, we finally located the unknown on the top of Laji Mountain. When we drove into the scenic spot, night had already fallen.
The scenic spot was empty, only a few aunts surrounded by vendors. After the aunt learned that we lived here at night, she poured us a large cup of buttered milk tea made by her, and enthusiastically pointed us to a free way up the mountain. route.
It was really cold on the top of the mountain, and we were so cold that we couldn't bear it. We bought a jacket for each of us, and it only cost 100 yuan each. When we came down from the mountain, it was completely dark. From the sunroof of the RV, we found that the Milky Way could be seen more clearly from the top of Laji Mountain than by Qinghai Lake.
It also drew a perfect end to our Qinghai-Qaidam trip.
The Sadness of Qaidam——Written at the end
I really hope that those of you who are here can forward this article. Because of the great heat in Qinghai last summer, a large number of tourists followed tour groups, chartered cars, and drove into Qinghai and Qaidam by themselves. But this sudden "peak season" actually far exceeds the carrying capacity of local tourism. Not to mention full hotels and road congestion, the most basic problem of garbage disposal has become the scars of our tourists after they have been here. During the whole process of entering the Qaidam Basin, there were a lot of garbage left by pedestrians along the Yadan section. This may be a matter of personal quality, but when we drove from Shuishang Yadan to Xitaijiner, we passed by A piece of Yadan shines like stars in the setting sun, as if setting diamonds on Yadan, which is very beautiful.
My teammates and I thought it was some kind of mineral, until we came back, after the sun almost went down, we found that these glistening spots were actually pieces of garbage that had been weathered and buried, metal shards from soda cans, shards of glass bottles The fragments of paper became about the size of sand, and with the wind blowing to the depths of Yadan, the Yadan within about 50 meters within sight was covered with debris.
This is not a matter of personal quality, but the way the local government handles garbage, or the most primitive way of abandoning/burying/incinerating in no-man's land.
The more beautiful Qaidam is, the more garbage tourists bring, including the treatment of sewage, the management of tourists, and the management of the ground and ecology, all of which have not matched the surge in the number of tourists.
I very much hope that the Qinghai government can pay attention to the issues of garbage disposal, environmental recycling, and the protection of saline-alkali land while becoming an Internet celebrity tourism province for itself.
Don't let the beauty of Qaidam become gorgeous fireworks.
end.
