2012 Silk Road West Tour No. 30: Dunhuang West Lake, get close to and get to know the Bactrian Camel
Leaving Hecang City, we intend to go to the Great Wall of Han to search for it.
In the end, they did not find the Great Wall of Han, but found a scenic area in Dunhuang West Lake, where the two children rode a local camel, enjoyed the songs and dances of Kazakh beauties, and made a generous Shandong friend!
Dunhuang West Lake Scenic Area Twin-Peaked Camel (sculpture)
There is a way: where there is no herb at the end of the world, and who knows, where life does not meet!
In Dunhuang West Lake, the most interesting thing is to ride a camel, and more importantly, to know a kind of camel - Bactrian camel!
Dunhuang West Lake Tourist Area
According to official sources, wild Bactrian camels are nationally protected animals and were listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2001. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2004, there are fewer than a thousand wild Bactrian camels left in the world, and about 600 in China. However, according to the tracking of the research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the wild Bactrian camel population in the Kumutag Desert still has high genetic differences, and the natural survival ability of the species is strong. That's reassuring.
Bactrian camels
At present, the world's wild Bactrian camels are only distributed in 4 regions, namely the Gashun Gobi in the north of Lop Nur, the northern foothills of the Arjin Mountains and the surrounding Kumtag Desert, the Taklamakan Desert and the Altai Gobi outside Mongolia. Of these, about 400 live in the Kumtag Desert, which is their main habitat.
Captive-domesticated Bactrian camels
Camel riding is the main activity of Northwest Tourism
Next, we consulted the relevant information, and the main body of the Kumtag Desert is in Xinjiang and 47% in Gansu Province. Today, the Kumtag Desert has set up three national protected areas, namely Xinjiang Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve, Gansu Annanba Wild Camel National Nature Reserve and Gansu Dunhuang West Lake National Nature Reserve.
We arrived at the Dunhuang West Lake Wild Camel National Conservation Area in Gansu Province.
Wild Bactrian camel in Xinjiang
Take a closer look at the Kumtag Desert, located at the junction of western Gansu and southeastern Xinjiang, bordering Dunhuang Yadan National Geopark in the north, Arjin Mountain in the south, Lop Nur in the west, Dunhuang Mingsha Mountain and Annamba National Conservation Area in the east, east longitude: 90°27'~94°48', north latitude: 39°00'~40°47', an area of 22,000 square kilometers.
Kumtag Desert