Xinjiang Travel Notes

I love traveling and enjoying different scenery around the world. But often when you have money you don’t have time, and when you have time you don’t have money. Sometimes I have money and time, but my parents won’t give me a day off.

One great day in September 2019, it had all three. I visited northern Xinjiang, Yinchuan and northern Shaanxi. Take a flight to Urumqi, then take a train from Urumqi to Yinchuan, then take a long-distance bus from Yinchuan to Yan'an, and then take the high-speed rail to Xi'an. The trip ends. First, write down your travel diary of Xinjiang.

1. Xinjiang

Xinjiang tourism is divided into three sections, a 6-day in-depth panoramic tour of Kanas, a one-day tour of Tianshan Tianchi, and a one-day tour of Turpan. Travel notes need to be written slowly. Please follow me and enjoy them slowly.

Xinjiang is very large, accounting for almost one-sixth of China's land area, equivalent to the combined area of ​​the four provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Qinghai. The tour guides all say that the landforms of Xinjiang are like a word, which is the right half of the character Xinjiang. The three horizontal lines represent three mountains. From north to south are the Altai Mountains, Tianshan Mountains and Kunlun Mountains. The two fields sandwiched between the three horizontal lines represent. There are two major basins, North Xinjiang to the north and Nan Xinjiang to the south. Northern Xinjiang is mainly populated by Kazakhs, while southern Xinjiang is dominated by Uighurs.

Xinjiang is very rich in resources. Electricity is sent from west to east, gas is sent from west to east, beef and mutton, sunflower seeds, cotton, coal, oil... countless resources and mineral deposits. It is also the land of singing and dancing, and the land of countless fruits.

Most places in Xinjiang are arid, except for the desert, which is the Gobi. There are not many places with mountains and water, but the scenery is often particularly beautiful.

The overall impression is that Xinjiang is very safe, very convenient, and tourism management is also good. I think it is better than the mainland. It is said that there is no shopping in tourism, and there is absolutely no tour guide trying to persuade you to buy things. I haven’t been to a single shopping spot. It makes people feel that Xinjiang people are very honest. There are many police officers in Urumqi, so it is very convenient to ask for directions. Xinjiang is so vast that it often takes several hours of highway driving to get from one point to another. The 8-day trip to Xinjiang was basically spent in the car. After 8 days, I found that my legs were swollen. The biggest problem is that I didn’t even bring back a ticket. Tour guides at most scenic spots do not issue tickets at all. Some places require person-to-person inspection of tickets. After inspecting the tickets, the tour guide immediately takes them back and says that he has to go back and file an account. I don’t know why I didn’t use an invoice to report the bill, but such a good souvenir was actually taken back.

I found that there are very few airplanes in Xinjiang. In so many days in Xinjiang, I only saw a passenger plane flying overhead once, and I never saw a military plane drawing a line in the sky. Diwopu Airport is also very small. I walked out of the airport and found a place to stay without much difficulty. It shows that Xinjiang is not very developed yet.

2. Departure

let's go! The first stop was the No. 3 Mine in Keketuohai Town. We passed the Gurbantunggut Desert and the Karamay Ungulate Nature Reserve along the way. The distance was too long and the time was limited, so we could not get off the bus. through Visit and take photos through the car window. The place names in Xinjiang are often difficult to pronounce. .

As soon as I left the urban area of ​​Urumqi, I felt that Xinjiang is huge, with few cars and few pedestrians. Racing all the way, as far as the eye can see!

Not far from the city, there is a mixture of desert and Gobi. There is a small amount of grass growing in it. Kazakh pastures are such an environment. The picture above shows straw fixing sand. The size of this square is very particular. Not too big, not too small.

We stopped to take a rest and take a quiet look at Xinjiang. At first glance, there was nothing.

The place we passed was called Huoshao Mountain. The stones on the mountain seemed to have been burned by fire, just like the waste bricks burned in the brick kiln. The rocks on the roadside are all stones from Huoshaoshan, not construction waste.

These are Kazakh pastures. The pasture is sparse with grass and many stones. You can't go wrong with the mutton here. The sheep have to run back and forth in a large field to eat their stomachs.

Kazakh herdsmen built a pile of stones on the hill to indicate that people were already grazing in this area. Different base laws may also contain different meanings. Perhaps it also pointed out which direction the shepherds should go in.

There are many people traveling by car. These two people may want to try their luck to see if they can pick up a piece of jade. It is said that there are a lot of jade here, and if you are lucky you can really pick it up.

A few Wild running Horses, the grey one in the middle is probably the legendary Przewalski's horse. The Kazakhs let the horses run free, and the wild and domestic horses mixed together, which may produce a better breed. I don't know how they call the horses back when they want to ride.

I don’t know the official name of the Kazakh yurt , it’s definitely not called a yurt . It is said that the appearance is the same as the yurt, but the interior is different. The ones on the roadside are usually Mujiale, which provide accommodation for self-driving travelers. You have to pay to enter.

Kazakh cemetery. The cemeteries of the Kazakhs are much more luxurious than those of the Han people. Generally the tombs of the Han people are just mounds of earth, and trees cannot be planted on the Gobi Desert, so they are just mounds of bare earth with no grass . The Kazakhs lived in movable tents and yurts when they were alive and moved frequently. After death, they must live in luxurious and fixed houses.

There are jade sellers everywhere. Xinjiang is known as the hometown of fruits and the hometown of singing and dancing , but I didn’t encounter many fruit sellers along the way. I don’t know how to make this jade cabbage look like it’s broken.