#云游风物之旅 #
Lake Karakule
Tourists staying in Kashgar generally choose to go to Taxian to play for a few days, many travel apps have small groups from "Kashgar" to play in surrounding counties, of which Taxian has the most options, 1-3 days of group prices are uneven, but there are only a few attractions to visit.
After turning around the streets and alleys of Kashgar Ancient City on the 5th, I booked a two-day, one-night itinerary (May 6-7) in Taxia on Fliggy.
Depart at 9:30 a.m. on the 6th, pass through the Pamir Plateau, Baisha Lake (ticket), Karakul Lake (ticket), Mushtag Peak (glacier ticket), Tahman Wetland, Kashgar Ancient Stone City + Jincaotan Wetland (ticket ☑️ ☑️ ☑️ ☑️), Panlong Ancient Road, Bandil Blue Lake, Tasha Ancient Road, and return to the ancient city at about 9:30 pm on the 7th.
Although there are so many attractions to go on the itinerary details page of the website, the actual scenery seen must be linked to the weather, especially the weather in the plateau, which is fickle, and it is even more lucky to see the stunning scenery on a sunny day.
It was cloudy weather when I left on the morning of the 6th, and after leaving the ancient city of Kashgar, I bought breakfast in Shufu County, and chatted with the supermarket owner, which also confirmed my conjecture that it would snow in Taxian County.
Walking along National Highway 314 in the direction of Kezhou Glacier Park, there are already dark clouds in the distance, the Red Mountain Gorge of Oitaka is eclipsed, and there are only a few people wandering at the entrance of the scenic area.
The 314 national highway that must be passed to Taxian is also called the Karakoram Highway, and if you go south from the national highway, you can go to the Hongqirap port to Pakistan, so there is also a name for the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway.
Gezi border checkpoint
Before entering the Pamirs, you will pass through the Gezi Grand Canyon, which you must first pass through the "Gezi Border Checkpoint" to enter this gorge. The border checkpoint, located between the cliffs on the banks of the Gezi River, was a major passage road as far back as the Han Dynasty. People and vehicles going to Taxian and the border will check their passes here.
After entering the canyon, the road is surrounded by landslides and gravel, desolate, but hidden behind the cliffs are cold snow-capped mountains, and the 40-minute journey to Baisha Lake is full of contrasting landscapes.
Enjoy the lake view
Baisha Lake does not have the beauty of white and blue as expected, because of the weather, everything is gray. Walking down the national highway, standing on the observation deck and looking at the other side of Baisha Lake, you can vaguely see the smooth and delicate appearance of the sand piled into small hills, and the Baisha Mountain is dotted with snow tops of different shades of color. Local herders led white yaks and horses to guard the entrance of Baisha Lake, approached every passing tourist to sell horseback riding business, and came to Qinghai Lake in a trance.
White Sands Lake
On the way to Lake Karakule, the Kirgiz guide recommended us to eat in a yurt opened by a local herdsman by the lake, which fulfilled the biggest regret of our fellow donkeys in Kashgar - the large plate of chicken.
The large plate chicken on the plateau is different from the plain area, the air pressure is insufficient, the rice is difficult to cook, and the moment the cold large plate chicken enters the mouth, diners know that this is probably a chicken that has been reheated beforehand. Wait until the noodles come up, mix the noodles in, and rely on the residual temperature of the noodles to heat the cooled chicken, which is probably a meal to support the construction of the Kerakul Lake scenic area, 50 per capita.
Lake Karakule
Compared to White Sand Lake, Kerakul Lake is a little more magnificent, and even if it is cloudy, it can capture the beauty of Mushtag.
Overlooking snow-capped mountains
Located at the junction of Aktau and Tak counties, Mushtag is known as its glacier park, known as the "father of glaciers". According to the guide, every year a large number of foreign tourists rent houses and camp at the bottom of the mountain just to climb the mountain, as tourists we want to go into the mountain to see the glacier, we need to spend 150 yuan to take a pickup truck up the mountain, 2 hours round trip.
We ride the car with the will to shake our stomachs out and shake our asses, passing unrenovated gravel roads, dirt pit roads, puddle roads, and any other rugged mountain road you can think of, until we reach your final destination, the open observation deck at the top of the mountain. From this observation deck at an altitude of 4,500 meters, all you can see is snow and mountains, and on a cloudy day at the top of the mountain, it is a misty snowy mountain under a cloudy day.
Mushtag
If you want to see the glacier, you have to spend another 150 yuan to ride up the mountain from the observation deck, which is about 1.5 kilometers away, or you can walk up. Like the locals I met before who sold horseback riding, the salesmen here had a tenacious mentality, and when they met tourists like me who walked up the mountain, they followed them all the way. Seeing that I had stopped, I felt that I could not move, so I rode behind me until the business was done. When selling, you have to have such action, but as a tourist (hunted) you will only feel tired.
When you encounter a sunny day, it is easy to go up the mountain to shoot beautiful scenery, and it is estimated that it is difficult to shoot a wishful film on a cloudy day and snow. On the way down, the snow on the plateau has already drifted, and on the way over the peak, towards the Tahman wetlands, the wind and snow wrapped the vehicle, and it was impossible to see whether it was fog or sand ahead.
Tahman Wetlands
On the Tahman Wetland Observation Deck next to National Highway 314, full of passing vehicles, at this time the wind and snow have stopped, and dark clouds can still be seen in the distance on the summit of Mushtag Peak, and the nearby wetland is yellow and green.
Walking through the Tahman Wetlands, the next stop is Taxian County. The cleanliness of the road surface in Taxian is completely different from the county seat passed through in the past, there are no traces of wind and sand erosion, the asphalt road is clean as new, I think it may be because it is located on a plateau, and the county seat is close to the wetlands and the Tashkurgan River, and the water flow should play a lot of role.
On the way to Taxian County
From the moment you enter the city, all you see outside the car window is the "yak hot pot restaurant". People who live on the plateau cannot do without the nourishment of yaks. Cities that rarely see "Sichuan cuisine" are quite rare.