Xinjiang Travel Notes 09 – The Lost Qiongkush Terrace

When we were about to finish our meal, a few more tourists arrived. They were eager to eat as soon as they arrived. This place will not be prepared in advance, so you will have food as soon as you arrive. The sky is completely dark, there are no clouds in the sky, and the second half of the second half of the 22nd lunar month will not rise until late at night. The noise of the engine was a bit loud, which together with the street lights in the yard broke the dark tranquility and obscured the stars. There were several horses grazing on the grass outside the fence.
It was a bit cold outside and I couldn’t stay outside. I had to go back to the yurt. The yurt only had a very low door, which was made of iron. There were wide gaps on all sides. It probably couldn’t block the wind or the wind. Rain, of course, and all this, there is no need to worry about it outside today. Xiaoxia talked to us for a while and then went to bed. I was regretting that I brought a tripod from Xi'an, but I forgot it in Xiaoxia's car. When I got to the parking lot, I asked to remind me not to forget it, but I still forgot it. When I think of it, I am already in Crocodile Bay. Before sunset, I walked around and found no stones suitable for setting up a camera to take pictures of the stars. In fact, there were no stones on the grass at all. The two ladies were talking in two places. One was sitting at the corner of the table looking at photos, and the other was lying on the mattress. What they talked about most was that their friends came here some time ago and how cold and pitiful they were. The stove shivered when it was on fire.
I got up and ducked out the door, walked to the yard, and looked at the sky. The sky was getting darker. Several huge stars were twinkling in the sky. One by one, there were many stars. You can see it, but it's not as big or bright. I came in and was about to ask them to watch the stars, but found that Xiao Xia and Ms. W were already asleep. We were all sleepy, and the generator was still buzzing. It took us a while to find the switch and turn off the light.
I was thinking about taking pictures of the starry sky, so I was very concerned about whether the generator had stopped. It was already past the time when Xiaoxia told me about the power outage, but the generator was still there. There were three people in the yurt. Snoring slightly.
In a daze, I felt that there was no sound from the generator. I couldn't tell whether it had just stopped or if it had been stopped for a while. In fact, that didn't matter at all. Take out the camera and the remote control. If you want to take long exposures of the starry sky, the remote control is very important.
The yard is very cold, the starry sky is beautiful, there are many big stars, more and brighter than I have seen since I was a child. Under the starry sky, you can still vaguely make out the dark shadow of the fence and the dark shadow of the distant mountains. I put the camera on the ground and took a few test shots, but I couldn't find the angle, or the camera wouldn't hold up. Twenty or thirty meters away from me, there were two people taking pictures. They had a tripod. I had to take pictures of such a beautiful starry sky. After thinking about it for a long time, I suddenly came up with a solution: use my hiking shoes! Isn't that a good spacer?
The creaking sound of the door opening did not wake up the sleeping person. I used the peripheral light of the mobile phone screen to find the shoes. Then I returned to the yard and lay on the ground. I felt the position of the camera lens little by little and forgot about it. I took a photo due to the smell of shoes, but the angle was not very good. I adjusted the angle again and tried several times, but finally managed to capture the starry sky. The two friends next to me didn't know whether they were filming stunts or didn't know how to respect others. Their flashlights were shaking around from time to time. This is what I fear the most when taking pictures of the starry sky and star trails. Being swayed by a strong light can take dozens of seconds or even dozens of minutes or hours. The results are completely ruined. The aperture of my lens is a bit small, only F4.0, and the ISO is set to 6400. It is still dark after 15 seconds, and the light spot is a bit smeared after 30 seconds, but it is better than dark. It seems that if you want to capture the starry sky more perfectly, you need to have a wider aperture, and use F2.8 or even F2.0 to be more satisfied.
When I was taking pictures, I heard three or four horses gnawing grass nearby. The sound of gnawing grass was very clear and loud, and it was getting louder and louder, indicating that they were getting closer and closer to me. They were already close to me. I stood up and growled lowly, trying to drive the horse away. The horse seemed indifferent to the roar. I roared for a while, and the horse finally gnawed on the grass and slowly moved away. I don’t know if it was driven away by me or because of their own behavior. pace, walking far away while eating. Because horses are large and have to run and work during the day, the nutrition of grass is low. The little grass they eat in the remaining time is not enough to meet their needs, so they eat non-stop at night. It is true that "a horse does not have grass at night". Fat".
I adjusted the camera to door B and started shooting star trails. After tinkering for a while, I took the remote control back to the yurt to get confused. In the daze, I felt that the horse was back again. Don’t step on the camera. One I was so excited that I hurried out of the yurt. Fortunately, the horse was in the other direction of the yurt. I just didn't notice the dim light of the camera's working indicator light. I fumbled to find the camera, and found that it might be an operating error, and the shooting did not proceed.
The Milky Way has moved in a big direction, and the top of the yurt is facing the Milky Way. This time it finally works normally. I put the remote control next to the camera, and then went to be confused again. I don’t know if it was half an hour or more, but I got up to look at the results. The star track was captured, but the time was too short and the track wasn’t long enough. I thought I’d make do with it. I wanted to take another shot, but time didn’t allow because the moon was already exposed. At the top of the mountain, I put away my camera, took my shoes into the tent, and went to sleep peacefully. It was almost 4 o'clock. I had been shooting the stars for nearly 3 hours, and I was already exhausted.

At about 6 o'clock, I still woke up. It was already very bright outside, so I got dressed and got up. I didn't take off my clothes when I went to bed, so I just added thick clothes. When we walked out of the yurt, it was indeed very cold, much colder than when I fell asleep. Both ladies put on down jackets.
There was a lot of dew on the grass. Fortunately, I took my shoes into the yurt before going to bed, otherwise they would have been wet. The moon was still mid-air in the east, not even mid-air. The mountains to the east are still a little dark. There are not many clouds floating on the tops of the snow-capped mountains. The lower areas are still dark, but the higher areas have turned pink. Today's sunrise will not be gorgeous.
There is a mountain ridge blocking the sunrise direction. Judging from the straight line, it seems that we can walk there in time. We just need to walk down the hillside we are on and then climb up the opposite hillside. So we started to move forward, and when we reached the top of the hillside we were on, we found that this was impossible, because the bottom of the valley was not a gentle slope transition, but a deep ditch that could not be walked through, and the tourists we saw walking around when we came in yesterday In the past, there was no time.
So, we gave up the attempt to go to the opposite mountain ridge and started taking pictures at will. The sun shines on Jinshan Mountain, but it still doesn't appear. The sun slowly rises above the mountain ridge, and the sun shines all over the grass, and the dewdrops are crystal clear. The herdsmen have begun their day's work. Some are leading sheep and milking them, some are riding horses, and there are mothers with children...
Our breakfast time is 8:30, and the sun rises from the ridge at 7 o'clock. At half past three, there is still a long time for us to experience the beautiful morning in the grassland. The clouds stretched on the top of the mountain, slowly changing their shapes and becoming whiter and whiter. If you want to take photos of grass and flowers with dewdrops, you need to lie down on the ground without fear of dew getting your clothes wet.

It was 9:30 before we left the Herdsman Inn, and then took the Scenic Bus at the World Heritage Center to the north gate (Clark Gate) of the scenic spot. It was the first bus to leave the scenic spot. At the north gate, we transferred to the bus bound for the Visitor Center, and ended Visited Kalajun Scenic Area.
According to the itinerary, today (27th) we will go to Qiongkushtai, then to Xinyuan, and stay in Xinyuan in the evening. Because I took pictures of the stars at night and didn't get enough sleep, I was shaken by the car. I was really sleepy. I started looking for Duke Zhou as soon as I handed over the car at Shangjing.
Qiongkushtai is the northern starting point of the Wusun Ancient Trail and the starting point of the Qiongkushtai-Kurdening hiking route through the Kalajun. Every year, many people come to hike, and various posts and photos are widely circulated on the Internet. This remote village became famous and attracted a large influx of tourists. The beautiful scenery and fresh air here have made it a tourist hotspot. On the way, I repeatedly mentioned how beautiful Qiongkush Terrace is. Xiaoxia discussed with us that the road is now very tight. When he went there last time, the last 30 kilometers of mountain road could not be driven by car. It would take at least 5 or 6 hours to go back and forth. If it didn't work, we wouldn't go. I said that if the road was really bad, I wouldn’t go. The scenery was similar to what I saw in Kalajun Scenic Area, and the lady agreed.
After crossing the river, turn left from the three-way intersection and drive to the Y051 line, heading for Qiongkush Terrace. The two sides of the road have changed slightly from the time we went to Qiongkush Terrace. The messy mounds of soil have been smoothed and greened. , the intercepted location changed the most. Going up the slope, there is a long and gentle road. On both sides of the gentle slope are flat fields. Most of them are planted with wheat, which is lush green, and some are not planted with anything. The loess is exposed, and there are sometimes small valleys or small valleys. It is pasture or wheat is grown. There is only one valley, which is full of rapeseed. The mouth of the valley is one or two hundred meters wide. Xiaoxia stopped the car and let us take pictures. This is the largest rapeseed flower we have encountered at close range during our trip to Xinjiang.
Not far ahead, there is a service area with a viewing platform and a bathroom on the north side of the road. It is very clean. There are not many roads in the mainland with such conditions, let alone township roads. The road is three to five meters higher than the farmland on the north side. Standing on the roadside, you can have a clear view: at the end of the field is the Kuokesu Canyon, and you can see the scenic cableway. There are green wheat in the field, and on a gentle slope in front of the right side, a Tai Chi diagram is spelled out with rapeseed.
After a short stop, we continued to move forward. There were no vehicles, pedestrians, or livestock on the road. The asphalt road was flat and it was very refreshing to walk on. After finishing the flat road, we came to an area with continuous hills, and the grassland became beautiful. The last time I went to Qiongkush Terrace to build a road and wait for release, there is now a viewing platform on the hillside headland, and the road has been repaired long ago. It's not very far from the canyon here. The hillside is relatively steep, and the hillside spreads out left and right like waves, leading directly to the canyon. The hillside on the opposite side of the canyon is just like the hillside here, which is very pleasing to the eye. Analyzing from the location of the canyon, I feel that the opposite side is the Human Body Grassland, the most elite and Internet-famous place in the Kalajun Canyon Scenic Area. Later, I looked at the satellite map and saw that the hillsides on both sides of the river were distributed on both sides of the Kuokesu River like two big lungs. I finally understood why we thought this place was so beautiful that time.

The road down the mountain has also been repaired. It is very winding, has a steep slope, and has several 180-degree switchbacks. After passing the Kuokesu River (flowing from south to north), and proceeding for a kilometer or two, the road spirals upward again. When we passed this point the year before last, it started to drizzle. The grasslands on both sides are beautiful. I sat in the car and took pictures. I don’t know how many turns we made back and forth. After a hard switchback and then a slightly gentler switchback, we reached the top of the slope. There was a flat land on the top of the slope and an archway. There was a parking lot around the archway. Xiaoxia turned the car stopped. It turns out that this is the gate of the Kuokesu Grand Canyon, also known as the Heart to Heart Viewpoint. From the parking lot to the west, all the way to the Kuokesu River, there are still the same wavy pastures. To the east are higher mountains.
We did not enter the scenic spot again. I climbed up a small hill not far to the west. There is a road on the west side of the hill, but the hill is dozens of meters higher than the road. Standing on the top of the mountain, you have a clear view to the south, north and west. To the south, you can clearly see the nine twists and turns. Looking to the west, you can see the hillsides we just descended and climbed. Looking to the north, Go, the grassland is undulating and very beautiful. I can definitely confirm that it is the human body grassland. The light and shadow taken here are even more beautiful than in the scenic spot, but I don’t know if I will have a chance.
Continue walking southeast along the grassland, bypassing a mountain ridge, and then descending to a small valley. There is a large village on the left side of the valley, which is the village we expected to be Qiongkushtai last time: Ke Shkush Terrace. After passing the village, the road climbs uphill again, and finally enters a section dominated by forests. On the north side of the road is the undeveloped Zhongtian Mountain Snow Peak Scenic Area in Kalajun.
The road with good surface was finished, the asphalt road was gone, and it turned into a gravel road. The road condition was better than Xiaoxia expected. Many potholes had been filled, but it was still very bumpy, so the car kept moving forward. On a downhill section, we encountered road construction equipment such as loaders and scrapers. The road administration department was repairing the road. Further on, big potholes appeared one after another.
A fire inspection registration station was set up beside a bridge over a small river. Xiaoxia went to go through the formalities. The river was gurgling and very clear . I was sitting in the car waiting for Xiaoxia. Two eagles flew over from a short distance away and circled in the forest clearing next to the car. I quickly changed my telephoto lens and the eagles were still circling, just a little farther away than they started. Just make do with it.

When I turned the corner, I saw the road we had taken when we hiked from Qiongkush Terrace, cutting across the hillside pasture to the pass. It was very clear - we were finally there.
Going from the hillside to the village, I felt very sad: at the bottom of the valley before entering the village, a large piece of the mountain was cut off and used as a parking lot. A large scar was exposed on the mountain, which was ugly. I hope the parking lot After repairing it, it will look better. Many new houses have been built in the village, some of which occupy a large area. They are crowded, chaotic and give people a very uncomfortable feeling. They are all developed in a spontaneous and barbaric way. The contradiction between development and protection is in fierce conflict here, and without a plan, Qiongkush Terrace has lost itself and has become nondescript. It is no longer what I call a paradise.
At the entrance of the village, we ate in a newly opened restaurant. The restaurant was large and empty...
After eating, I found the inn where I had stayed and found the gurgling music that accompanied me to sleep. The river is still gurgling and clear.

A little after 3:30, I left Qiongkushtai with conflicting feelings. Five hours later, I checked in at Xinyuan. The road was still blue sky and white clouds, and the grassland was beautiful.