Eagle Travels in Xinjiang: 11 "Selim Lake and Guozigou"

I have lived by the sea for many years, and I don't have much interest in large lakes - they just look like a smaller sea. However, I came anyway, over mountains and ridges, but it was not hard at all - the highway is right next to the lake.

As a half-Minnan person, I was stunned when I heard the name "Selim Lake" for the first time. This lake is thousands of miles away from Xiamen, so far that we cannot understand each other in words. "Serimunaoer", the national curse in Hokkien actually means: "the lake on the ridge" in Mongolian.

The mountain is the West Tianshan Mountains, located not far from the border between Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. As if a spell had been recited by the powerful Budai monk, the vast Tianshan Mountains were suddenly shrunk into a belt here, like a tightly tied bag, tightly strangling the warm and humid air currents from the Atlantic Ocean. As a result, there was a lake of jasper on the mountain; at the same time, at the foot of the mountain, the water flowing from the west created the magnificent Ili River Valley.

The sky over Selim Lake is so blue that it makes people sad, and those filamentous clouds have a fleeting beauty that you can never catch if you don't pay attention.

I don't know where the wind comes from? The lake is so vast that it gives the illusion of calmness. The snow-capped mountains hug the lake tightly in their arms, fearing that if they accidentally let go, this blue treasure will disappear. I stood on the grass beside the lake and looked quietly into the distance, but the shepherd on the other side must be able to hear the song I was singing in my heart.

Perhaps because I couldn't bear the loneliness of thousands of years, the sparkling waves on the lake jumped ashore one after another, turning into golden yellow buttercups blooming all around.

Fishing gulls flew over the lake, one or two, and gradually disappeared. Soon they flew out from nowhere. Just when you noticed the smug look in their eyes through the telescope, they disappeared with the wind again, leaving only the snow-capped mountains as the background, right in front of you. It's so majestic that it takes your breath away.

Yes, without those snow-capped mountains, Selim Lake would be bland. But you may ask, the mountain is right there, how could it not fall?

It all depends on Yun's mood. When sadness strikes, and the joy that stretched before like a flying fairy disappears, a heart that is in desperate need of crying will make the clouds become stagnant and heavy, and all kinds of resentment will grow wantonly, swallowing up all the skyline in the last bite, and of course... Including the snow-capped mountains that usually look extremely cold. At that moment, even the lake water that was accustomed to the colorful depths and high spirits could only sigh in gray, lapping at the shore languidly, doing nothing.

The horses that were grazing with their heads down seemed to have noticed the change. They looked up, but were not surprised. They continued to eat, even swallowing the small blooming flowers into their stomachs.

On the way to Selim Lake we passed by Guozigou. It is said that every spring, there are seven days here when wild apples, wild apricots, wild hawthorns, and wild cherries are in peak bloom. At that time, the fruit ditch is as beautiful as a dream, and it can be called the most scenic spot in Ili. Tourists flocked to it, and then it was almost deserted.

I think this is good. After all, it takes time to brew fruits, so it is best not to be disturbed. In this way, in autumn, the fallen fruits that fill the valley will ferment into a fragrance that intoxicates all things. It is said that when entering the ditch at this time, you can even see animals drunk from eating wild fruits everywhere. Of course, the premise is that you are not greedy, otherwise if you can't help but eat wild fruits, then you may have to stage an outdoor version of "Wonderful Night at the Zoo".

I came to Xinjiang in June, and I didn’t get to see any of the beautiful or interesting scenery. However, the newly built bridge in Guozigou was spectacular and became a sight.

Xinjiang’s infrastructure construction has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years. This place has been an important part of the Silk Road since ancient times, but geological changes and the passing of time have long made the road from Yining to Central Asia traceless. However, if commerce and trade need to circulate and people need to come and go, building roads and bridges is an inevitable option.

Regrettably, large-scale construction in such an ecologically and geologically fragile area is still an unbearable burden even though a series of construction methods have been adopted to reduce damage to nature. Even excluding the impact of weather changes, statistics show that in the past ten years, local natural disasters such as avalanches and mudslides have exceeded the sum of previous historical records.

Human ingenuity has made the highway tightly surround the lake on the mountain ridge and built the Guozigou Bridge flying in the air. 200 The majestic size of rice demonstrates enough conquest, but when will human wisdom enable us to achieve true harmony with nature?

Perhaps the key to finding the answer is not sealed in the laboratories of scientists, but in the hearts of people's desires.