If there is no sudden epidemic, this season is the best "taste period" for Ejina poplar forest. However, as of 26 October, 78 people had been infected in Ejina. The Ejina Poplar Forest Scenic Area had to press the pause button and announce the closure of the park. The autumn-colored poplar forest "enters winter" overnight.
Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi's red dresses are flowing, and the thousand-year-old poplar forest is full of gold... This scene in the movie "Hero" is a classic of screen aesthetics. The poplar forests of Ejina, Inner Mongolia, have become more and more famous. Every tourist season, trying to take a photo here without passers-by in the background has even become a "challenge project".
Many people may not know that in fact, more than 90% of China's poplars are distributed in Xinjiang, and 90% of them are concentrated in the Tarim River Basin. Also as one of the only three major poplar forest areas in the world, the Tarim poplar forest area is about 6 times that of Ejin. In addition, in addition to the scale, tarim poplar forests are more densely distributed than Ejina, and the landscape is also richer.
The vast desert night is lonely, whispering poplar for ten thousand years
Poplar is one of the oldest tree species in the world, at least 65 million years old. As the only tree species that can naturally become forested on the desert sand, it has taken root in the extremely dry desert, but it has become the best surviving "plant living fossil".
The combination of desert and poplar is the most gorgeous in the world. And the autumn of the Tarim poplar forest is the most vast and splendid autumn in the world.
In Uyghur, poplar is called "Tokrak," which means "the most beautiful tree." Tarim Poplar National Nature Reserve is the oldest, largest, densest and most well-preserved poplar forest reserve in the world.
There is a large area of virgin forest. On both sides of the original road, there are thick and vicissitudes of poplar trees, or bending and lodging, or screaming in the sky, or silent, or arrogant, and even on a tree you can see the strange scene of life and death coexisting.
The essence of Tarim poplar lies in the Luntai Tarim Poplar Forest Park, which was once rated as one of the "Top Ten Most Beautiful Forests" by China National Geographic. It is also the only desert poplar forest park among the 1,200 forest parks in the world.
Luntai Tarim Poplar Forest Park integrates the natural landscape of Tahe River, poplar landscape and desert landscape. Under the blue sky, in the vast desert, the Tarim River meanders through, and the golden poplar trees are reflected in the clear water, which is very beautiful and layered.
There is a 13-kilometer sightseeing railway in the scenic area, which takes 3 hours to sit in a circle. In the late autumn, when you sit on a small train and look out the window on both sides of the window are full of golden poplars, it is as if you are on a train to the fairy tale world.
In addition to sightseeing trains, a car tour is also recommended. Tarim Desert Highway (also known as Taklamakan Desert Highway), the longest road in the world built in the mobile desert, driving on this road, you will sigh at the vastness of the boundless sand sea, marvel at the tenacity of the life of poplars on the side of the road, marvel at the greatness of human transformation of nature, and make the Dead Sea change its course. The shock you will feel will not be inferior to the world-famous U.S. Route 66.
Tarim poplars are later yellow than those in Ejin, and the "golden age" is about mid-October to mid-November every year.
Even today, when tourism in Xinjiang is becoming more and more popular, Tarimhu still looks "deserted" compared to the famous Ejina, and it is still a treasure land waiting to be excavated. And that means – whether you want to see the scenery or shoot, you can be more relaxed and experience better.