Xinjiang Yining Travel Notes

It is now 21:43 at night, and it is raining lightly outside the window. I think of the days when I stayed in the mountains of Xinjiang, and it also rained. So I write this Yining memory.

 

Ili is famous for its Jiangnan characteristics. It was called "a foreign land from the west, a spiritual soil outside the world" by the ancients. It is located in the center of the Ili Valley Basin. Modern people call it "Jiangnan beyond the Great Wall" ". Yili was once the seat of Dayuezhi Kingdom and Wusun Kingdom. After Ili was officially incorporated into the territory of the motherland in 60 BC, it witnessed Genghis Khan's western expedition, the establishment of the "General in charge of Ili and other departments", the westward migration of the Xibe people, Lin Zexu's flood control, and Zuo Zongtang's recovery of territory. In 1954, the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture was officially established. .

 

Ili had been occupied by Tsarist Russia for decades. During the Qing Dynasty, Zuo Zongtang recovered Ili, the richest land in Xinjiang, from Tsarist Russia without any effort. Zuo Zongtang entered Xinjiang for ten years, galloped north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, expelled the Baiyanhu, wiped out Aguba, and outwitted Russia. He finally pacified the northern Xinjiang, recovered the southern Xinjiang, and returned to Yili. His achievements were very great.

 

We flew from Korla to Yining and landed at 9:40 pm, the sun was still shining brightly.

Since taking a taxi in Kashgar was detoured before, I used Didi at Yining Airport this time. The locals later told me that in Yining, wavingmetered taxis are much cheaper than online taxi, it is trueSuch asthis.

 

Mooring Youth Hostel is a name that most people who travel independently to Xinjiang will hear.

There are many branches in Xinjiang, and the Yining store has the best reputation, so I booked a few nights there. A taxi from the airport costs about 11-15 yuan. The public area environment is perfect, and there is a self-service washing machine on the top floor.

When I was in the car, I opened the window and took a few deep breaths of moist air. If you have just come from Kashgar and Korla, you can feel that even the pores on your face are being hydrated like crazy.

 

I met a lady from Shanghai during a one-day tour of Korla Times, and we went to Bosten Lake together in a chartered car with five people.

The next day she took a bus from Korla to Nalati, then took a bus from Gongnaisi to Xinyuan, and then transferred to Yining. This took at least two days, and the bus ride lasted for more than ten hours each day. The scenery along the way was beautiful.

My starting point and destination are the same as hers. It only takes an hour to fly directly between the two places, but I can’t see the beautiful scenery on the way, which makes me feel regretful.

On the afternoon of the next day after arriving in Yining, I saw her, dusty with travel, pushing open the parking door. I called her: "Sister, do you still remember me?"

After only two days apart, she has forgotten my name. We then shared our experiences of the past two days and made an appointment to go to Sailimu Lake together the next day.

 

Later, I met the person she had been with for the past two days at Qiongkush Terrace. Coincidentally, I met this person and once when I was in Korla, so I asked her to get it. She hurriedly gave me the nucleic acid test paper and then went downstairs with her bag.

My reunion with this third person was also wonderful - when I went to the hotel where she was staying to find someone to open a watermelon, I met her eating melon seeds alone. She stopped me and said, "Hey, come over and chat." Others talked about the truth after drinking for three rounds, but we talked about traveling from Tibet to Guangdong. Finally, I asked her: "Actually, have we met before?"

When traveling in Xinjiang, free travelers come and go, always with some luck.

 

Upon arriving at Yining's berth, I asked others in the room how to plan their trip.

One girl came from Beijing and camped, hiked, and barbecued in Sailimu Lake with her local colleagues. “I didn’t go to any scenic spots. I just had a few meals at my colleagues’ house. I’m ready to go back to Beijing. It’s pretty good. Have a great time.”

One was a girl from Suzhou. She was going to go hiking on the grassland with weights. She had a tent and was still buying pots and ingredients. "It will take at least five days to walk down." I asked her if she wasn't scared to be alone? She calmly said it was okay, as she had hiking experience before.

There was also an illustrator who came from Beijing, "I came to Xinjiang to escape the summer heat." She also planned not to go to any scenic spots, but to enjoy the air conditioning in the ice cream shop. I asked her weakly: "Have you seen the recent direct traffic in Beijing?" The one-way ticket price is around 1,500. Wouldn’t it be a waste not to go to the grassland?” She shook her waist-length hair and asked me with a smile, “Do you want to go eat ice cream together?”

With the leisurely examples of these people, when me is on my period, I just bask in the sun in the youth hostel, drink milk tea, watch the leisureRead , sleep in, and didn’t go out until four o’clock in the afternoon.

 

First go to Kazanqi Folk Tourism Area .

The richness of Kazanqi lies in its history. Kazanqi has a long history. According to historical records, the Uyghurs (also known as Talanqi people) who came from southern Xinjiang to Ili to open up wasteland in the 17th century first settled here.

The charm of Kazanqi lies in its culture. All residential buildings and environmental construction maintain the traditional style and pattern of a hundred years ago. The Central and Western Asian characteristics are perfectly combined with the local "Talanqi" traditional culture of Yining City, which has extremely high research value on national folk culture.

 

Kapraises his people for being open-minded and optimistic and loving life. No matter inside or outside the courtyard, whether rich or poor, flowers, plants and fruit trees will be planted, and everything will be clean and tidy. Because most of its buildings are painted with blue paint, it attracts many tourists and is known as "Oriental Morocco".

 

If you happen to catch up with the end of primary school time, there will be many children boldly greeting you in Chinese along the way: "Hello! You are beautiful!"

If they are accompanied by an adult, they will smile politely and nod at you.

 

Walking out of Kazanqi, across the road is the Hanren Street Bazaar.

There are no Han people in Han Street. It is called this because At the beginning of the last century, the first batch of people doing business here were from Yangliuqing, Tianjin. As time went by, the entire Han Street has undergone tremendous changes, and now people from ethnic minorities are the ones who come and go. They sell grilled lamb skewers, baked buns, yogurt lumps, noodles, etc. Local delicacies such as lungs and rose chicken soup.

 

There are quite a few street stalls selling yogurt shaved ice in Xinjiang. When I was in Kashgar, I saw them knocking a large solid block of ice off the cart, then picking it up from the ground, scraping off the ice with a knife, and then Pour yogurt into the bowl. If you are a tourist, you will ask more: "Do you want to add sugar?" Becauselocal yogurt is sour, and most tourists are not used to it.

 

Classic one-day trip itinerary for tourists: Horgos Port + Guomen Duty Free Shop + Huocheng Lavender + Sailimu Lake. Online group registration is about 200 yuan, including Saihu tickets and fares.

At that time, it was not the lavender season in early June. Due to the border blockade due to the epidemic, there were not many items in the duty-free shops. I originally wanted to go to Sailimu Lake, but the temporary carpooler wanted to check in at the border, so I went.

 

Bring your passport to enter the duty-free shop for free. If you don’t bring it, you need to pay 20 yuan to get a certificate to enter.

 

Car rental in Xinjiang is really too expensive. Our car rental fee + gas fee alone was 220 yuan per person. If you take the direct bus to the scenic spot, it departs from Yining Bus Station to Saihu at 9 o'clock every day, and the fare is 45 yuan one way. The driver will also stop in the scenic spot to let you take photos.

Self-driving cars can also be driven in. Arrive at the gate of Saihu and buy a ticket for 135 yuan .

 

 

Sailimu Lake is worth spending a whole day to savor. I reiterate: don’t waste time going to ports and duty-free shops! Saihu Lake is the most beautiful place in Xinjiang. We entered the scenic spot just after 5 o'clock that afternoon. We drove around the lake in a hurry and finally got out of the scenic spot before dark, without stopping a few times along the way (crying).

I don’t know if it’s because June is not yet the peak season. The scenic area is too lazy to maintain it. Most of the restrooms at the bus stops are locked We worked very hard and every time we saw the resting spots I quickly got out of the car, and as soon as I got there, I found that it was locked, and several people were really silent and crying.

 

The guy from Chengdu said that his favorite photo he took that day was because the clouds in the sky looked like pink hearts.

 

Chartering a car in Xinjiang is also very expensive. Each person pays the driver 200 yuan per day, and they also have to bear the driver's food, accommodation and tickets.

I was new to Duku and didn’t understand the market. The next day I got into a four-seater car and started my trip to Duku.

 

The first day's itinerary arranged by the driver was to pick us up from Yining to Turks, then from Turks to Kalajun, and then from Kalajun back to Turks to stay one night.

In fact, the bus ride from Yining Passenger Terminal to Tekes County is 35 yuan, and there is a shuttle bus from Tekes to Kalajun for 15 yuan.

It’s okay if a chartered bus is so expensive, but for long-distance travel, it’s extremely uncomfortable to squeeze three people in the back, and it’s not like a bus with its larger windows, so you can’t see the scenery at all. After sitting in the middle seat all day, I suffered from back pain to the extreme. I asked several times to take turns sitting in the middle seat. We were all strangers, so no one paid attention.

 

We needed to go out for dinner together that night. I suggested that I don’t eat mutton skewers and everyone should order their own, but the driver still ordered at 15 skewers per person. I asked, “Do I have to share the money with you even if I don’t eat mutton? ?" He said yes, it's easier to calculate. It would be more difficult to collect his own share of the meal.

I was speechless. It was equivalent to me paying 75 yuan to treat a few strangers to eat meat for free. Being tired and not feeling respected, I proposed that night to quit the chartered car. , just go and have fun on your own.

 

Several other people stopped working, saying they were motion sick along the way and had nothing to say to other group members. We broke up the group. In addition to the day's fare of 200, each person shared 130 for the driver's food and accommodation, and another 100 for his return trip.

This was the most correct decision I made along the way, saving me the trouble, unnecessary expenses, and the bad looks of the group members I didn’t know.

After getting rid of the driver, I embarked on the journey to Jon Kush Terrace with the two people in the back row.

The three of us, without any change of clothes, stayed in the mountains for three days.

Don't get into a stranger's car