For those of us who grew up watching "Journey to the West", we all know that the four monks and apprentices must pass through a place called "Flame Mountain" on their way to learn Buddhist scriptures. Is there a Flame Mountain in reality? The answer is: there really is! It is located in the northwest of my country, Turpan, Xinjiang!
I always thought that Sun Wukong made a big fuss in the sky, kicked over the alchemy furnace of Taishang Laojun, and fell into the lower realm to form a flaming mountain with "eight hundred miles of flames, and no grass around it". This one needs to borrow a plantain fan to extinguish the flames and pass through. The place only exists in legends, until I came to Turpan in midsummer!
After walking hundreds of kilometers from Hami, passing through the Huoyanshan Bridge, we came to the hottest place in China - Turpan Huoyanshan! When I arrived, it was already past nine o'clock in the evening, the sun was still high, making people breathless, and the whole space was filled with heat, like a giant oven, and the tourists were walking "dry bread", Even the wind is hot! There is a burning sensation on the skin.
Huoyan Mountain is located on the northern edge of the Turpan Basin, on the northern route of the ancient Silk Road. It is mainly composed of red sand, conglomerate and mudstone. The locals call it "Kiziltag", which means "Red Mountain". When the red sun is in the sky, the reddish-brown mountain is irradiated by the scorching sun, the sandstone is scorching and shining, and the hot air flow is tumbling up, just like a raging flame, and the tongue of fire touches the sky, so it is also called Flaming Mountain. This is not an exaggeration, even at night, some places are still hot and red!
In between taking pictures, I chatted with a security guard in the scenic area for a while, and he told me: Don’t look at the Huoyan Mountain at night, it’s so hot, it’s actually even more terrifying at noon, when the whole mountain is completely red! With dry mouth and burning skin, I wasn't surprised. He said, but he is used to it, and he can fully handle working in the open air, but he is not used to it if it is hot and humid. Admiration, after all, one side supports the other side.
Turpan, Xinjiang, has a typical continental arid desert climate, and Huoyanshan is the hottest place in China, and the temperature is unimaginably high! If I hadn't experienced it myself, no matter how vividly others described it, I would not be able to understand it. The highest temperature here in summer is as high as 50 degrees Celsius, and the highest surface temperature is as high as 80 degrees Celsius. You can bake eggs in the sand nest! Even breathing felt tormented, and the slight touch of the seat belt buckle on the car almost burned me.
Here is not only "China's hot pole", but also "China's dry pole"! Turpan, known as the "Fire Island", has an average annual precipitation of only 16 millimeters, half of which is in summer, while Toksun's annual precipitation is only 5.9 millimeters. It is not surprising that there is no rain or no rain all year round! Huoyan Mountain is even more barren, and the eyes are full of naked dry red soil.
At the foot of the Huoyan Mountain, you can still see groups of camels. At around 9:00 pm, the breeder dragged a cart of fodder past me and dumped it beside the camels. In such an environment, the colors of the camel and the Flame Mountain are so similar that they blend together, and it is impossible to tell where the camel is unless you look carefully.
The appearance of the flaming mountain looks very strange! Not a blade of grass grows, and the birds are invisible. It has deep folds, cracks, and ravines. Over tens of millions of years, the countless fold belts left by the lateral movement of the earth's crust and the natural wind erosion and rain stripping make these traces particularly obvious. The image of Monkey King is on the gate of the Flame Mountain scenic area, and there is a very special "plantain fan" thermometer on the square inside the gate, which shows the real-time temperature, which is really cute!
When you come to Turpan Flame Mountain in summer, it will be really hot to doubt your life! who I am? where am I? How can it be so hot? Turpan is the "lowest land" in Uighur. I checked the real-time altitude and it is 0 meters! This is a very mysterious place, and many strange phenomena appear here, which impresses me as a traveler very deeply! The wonderful journey of Turpan is still going on, let's look forward to it together! By the way, the sunset glow of Huoyan Mountain is purple!
