Since last summer' vacation, the Great Northwest Ring Road trip has been very popular, usually starting from Qinghai Lake to the Hexi Corridor, strung together the ultimate scenery such as Chaka Salt Lake, Water Yadan, and Mogao Grottoes. However, due to the fact that there are too many wonderful attractions, the shortest timeline is 7-8 days, which is really not very friendly for social animals. Even for people like me, who walk on the road all year round, many places are only a quick glimpse, and there is no opportunity to go deep into them to explore its beauty.
Just returned from Dunhuang last week, this time the Great Northwest Ring Road is different, only "intercepted" a section of the Gobi Desert, and included the oil town in the "Nine-Story Demon Tower", the photo cool Mars camp, half the sea and half the lake of xitai Jinnell Lake and other popular attractions, the time is 5 days and 4 nights. Honestly, it's perfect for people who don't have many holidays and want to go to the Great Northwest to have a play. Stop walking around and live like a local.
So while the memory is still fresh, the scene in my mind and the feelings at that time are written down, how to eat, how to play, how to arrange the itinerary, and even some self-driving feelings and precautions on the way, will be in the text with everyone chatter. And September just avoids the peak period of summer vacation, interested partners may wish to go deep into the northwest hinterland and start a desert extreme self-driving trip.
Itinerary
d1: Dunhuang → all over the world
d2: Dunhuang → Mogao Grottoes → Crescent Spring
d3: Dunhuang → Oil Town → Mars Camp → Water Yadan
d4: Yadan on the water → Red Cliff Valley
d5: Golmud → all over the world
Route map
Precautions
1. This trip has a high altitude, large temperature difference between morning and evening and strong ultraviolet rays, please prepare sunglasses, sun hats, and bring coats and sunscreen products;
2. Drinking water is mainly mineral water to avoid diarrhea;
3. If you have high blood pressure and heart disease, please do not drink alcohol and do strenuous exercise, in order to prevent altitude sickness, it is recommended to take Rhodiola Rosea in advance.
Highlights
d1: Dunhuang Night Market
Arriving in Dunhuang by plane from Beijing, the lights had already begun to shine, and after simply packing up his luggage, he rushed to the Dunhuang Night Market. Dunhuang Night Market is located in Dunhuang City, Yangguan East Road, the first time to know this night market is because of the variety show "Extreme Challenge", a group of stars wearing flower pants to take the tourist route, but also specially recommended the shallot beef cake → red willow kebab → roast cake with meat → Wusun hand pilaf to eat the itinerary.
However, at that time, the recording program was in the middle of the day, and in addition to remembering several recommended dishes, I was not impressed by dunhuang night market. When I arrived at Dunhuang Night Market, the variety of night market stalls was really unexpected, the colorful lights rendered a variety of food mouth-watering, and the beautiful prices made people can't help but "wow". The night market is divided into three parts: selling local specialties, food street and food stalls, with skewers in the left hand and meat in the right hand, and pedestrians everywhere stroll leisurely in the night market in this posture.
Dunhuang Night Market focuses on Western specialties, including donkey meat yellow noodles highly recommended by locals, lamb skewers and hu sheep stew cakes that are indispensable for daily diet, Dunhuang stuffed skins that save summer diets, and bubble oil cakes popular in Tang Dynasty court banquets... There is also a drink exclusive to Dunhuang: apricot skin water, made of Dunhuang "king of fruits" Li Guangxing, a mouthful, sour and sweet and fresh, the unique taste left a deep impression on me.
At dunhuang night market, you can not only take a stroll through the atmosphere, eat authentic food, but also enjoy a variety of works of art. Beautiful wood carvings, thousand-year-old poplar woodcuts, delicate silks, etc., have condensed the arrogance of the northwestern people in these exquisite objects, and also added a sense of agility to the city.
d2: Dunhuang - Mogao Grottoes - Crescent Spring
Dun, Daye, Huang, Shengye. The city seems to have been nurturing grand ideals since its inception, and the Mogao Caves are one of the most fantastic. Unlike other grottoes in the country, the Mogao Caves are carved into conglomerate and are not very suitable for carving, while the vast majority of works are clay sculptures and murals, recording the first encounter between the East and the West. Its beauty and power have repeatedly amazed the world. Even those who know very little about Buddhist art will be unconsciously immersed in the Mogao Caves.
I came to Mogao Caves for the second time, but it did not hinder my love for it, and I had to read the text strategy for a long time before I set out. From downtown Dunhuang, drive 25 kilometers southeast, passing through a desert, when the oasis appeared, it meant that the Mogao Caves had arrived.
The partner who accompanied the whole trip was the Audi q7. To be honest, this car is more than 5 meters long, has a large capacity trunk, and is equipped with a full-time four-wheel drive system of large SUVs, which is quite suitable for northwest travel. When passing through the desert Gobi Highway, although it is paved, some sand particles will still affect the stability of the vehicle on the road, then the full-time four-wheel drive system can be very fast, very moderate adjustment of the power output between the wheels, to ensure driving safety, but also to improve the riding comfort.
Mogao Grottoes a variety of caves, painted sculptures, murals, documents, and unfortunately the Tibetan Scripture Caves do not need to be repeated, remember to make a reservation in advance, you can see 8 caves and two movies about the history of Dunhuang and Mogao Grottoes.
The 8 caves contain 16-17 Tibetan scripture caves and 96 North Buddhas, and the groups of 20 people explain the caves one by one with a docent. Some caves are completely dark, and can only be seen by the cold light of the docent's flashlight, which is to avoid the damage caused by the strong light to the artwork, and mobile phones and cameras are absolutely forbidden to take pictures.
Don't look at the 8 caves is just a drop in the vast Gobi, and it takes most of the day to really visit. Each cave has its own characteristics, vivid depictions, and is worth savoring. The ones that impressed me the most were the 45 Cave Tang Dynasty statues and the 158 Cave Reclining Buddha Statues. Cave 45 is the best-preserved Tang Dynasty statue in the cave group, whether it is the Guanyin sutra on the south wall or the Guanyin Sutra on the north wall, they are all vivid and colorful, as if telling the world about the thousand-year historical changes.
Cave 158 Reclining Buddha statue head south foot north, calm look, body stretched out lying on the side. Standing in front of him, the heart is as calm as the sea, suddenly feeling small, and the beauty of art touches people's hearts. The reclining Buddha statue is also surrounded by weeping disciples, peaceful bodhisattvas, and special sentient beings such as cutting ears, piercing the chest, and breaking the abdomen, which are breathtaking.
Another treasure of Dunhuang is the Mingsha Mountain Crescent Spring. These two unique wonders have been nestled next to each other for thousands of years, and a clear spring in the golden sand mountain, allowing the quicksand to gather and disperse, and the sand does not hide the spring, which together interprets the romance of the water reflecting the sand mountain. When you come to this sea of sand, the colorful sand under your feet, the seven star grass of your excellency the moon spring, and the iron-backed fish in the crescent spring constitute another beautiful landscape of the desert, and if you can hold on to it at this time, it is also a good choice.
The most distinctive way to visit Mingsha Mountain Crescent Spring is by camel ride, and the best viewing experience is to sit in a powered glider and helicopter. Ride a camel through the desolate landscape, a golden yellow that cannot be seen at a glance, and the breeze blows, smoothing out the shallow footprints, but traveling back to the millennium in seconds.
After finishing the journey of dunhuang main line, I found that the front and rear lights of the q7 are really highly technological and easy to identify. Because this kind of motorcade travel is rare in the daily city, it can also be regarded as adding a touch of charm to the beautiful night view of Dunhuang.
People who have watched "The Nine-Story Demon Tower" will not forget the town full of monsters, when the film was popular, everyone thought it was a fictional place, but they did not expect it to be real. It is located about 100 kilometers south of Dunhuang, originally the old county seat of Aksai, officially called Luobo Zhuanjing Town. Due to the harsh natural conditions, in the 1990s the town's residents were collectively relocated to the town of Hongliuwan, dozens of kilometers away. Since then, the town has taken on a desolate trend and has been called a "ghost town" or oil town.
A spot that is not a scenic spot has accidentally caught fire and has become an important stop on the Qinggan Grand Ring Road. Even if the movie brings some vitality to the "ghost town", when I walk into the oil town, the thrilling feeling is still there, the huge town is deserted, and the residential buildings, hospitals, schools and other buildings still exist, but there is no sign of life. The ruins of the building, leaving behind the joy and laughter of many people, now stand there alone, full of loneliness among the bricks and tiles.
Taking pictures here always gives people the illusion of the end of the world, overturned buses, monsters in ruins, kindergartens drowning in weeds... Reflecting the snow-capped mountains in the distance, it creates a strong visual shock, as if silently waiting for tourists to unlock the heavy seal.
Continue from the county seat of Aksai, cross the Dangjin Mountain, and gradually enter the Qaidam Basin within the scope of Qinghai Province. Then pass by the abandoned town of Cold Lake, and when you see the No. 0 monument of Mars Highway One, it means that the Mars adventure journey officially begins. The reason why it is called "Mars Journey" is because the Oberian No Man's Land has the most beautiful Yadan landform in the Qaidam Basin, and the potholed ground resembles the surface of Mars.
In fact, the road to mars camp is the stage that really tests the performance of vehicles. Large pits of varying shades and depths are not stressful for the q7 adjustable height air suspension. And you can feel these bumps, the impact on the comfort of the car is not obvious, after all, the air suspension for the filtration of bumps is still in place.
Compared with the Urhe Devil City in Xinjiang, which can only be entered by tour bus, the Oboliang no-man's land can be driven by car, which is really exciting. Looking at the sides of the road, one small hill after another rises and falls, making people dizzy and easily losing their sense of direction. But as we get closer and closer to the top of Oberian Mountain, these strange hills gather into earthen forests, some like towering buildings, some like magnificent monuments, driving freely through them.
Self-driving here needs to pay attention to the fact that for some soft ground, be doubly careful, although the Q7 full-time four-wheel drive system is very fast on the limit of slippage, but also try to avoid the occurrence of wheel slippage.
Standing on the top of oberian mountain, the surrounding mountain beams are home to various natural wonders such as turtle backs, domes, and awls, and the Cold Lake Mars Camp is also located here. Accommodation at the camp includes capsule-style rooms, similar to Japanese capsule hotels, and tent-style rooms, the latter being more natural and suitable for stargazing.
Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, camp here and watch the spectacular scenery of sunrise and sunset in the desert like an oil painting, like landing on Mars. Choosing to take a photo of yourself in a spacesuit and go to another planet is not the place of your dreams?
Stay overnight in a Mars camp and continue to the vast Gobi the next day to enter the G315 national highway. The most famous part of this section of the highway is also the Qaidam Basin section, the road is rolling, the drop is very large, and the black road that cannot be seen at a glance seems to go straight into the sky. Some people say that it is the Chinese version of "Route 66", privately thinking that it is more desolate and atmospheric than Route 66, like a lone wanderer, you never know where its end is.
While driving on the "wavy" net red highway and experiencing the fun of self-driving, you can also fully feel the wide rear space of Q7, which can lie on your side, take a nap, and adjust the temperature of the rear independent partition air conditioner, without worrying about affecting the small partner in another area of the rear. The tranquility of the vehicle to the whole vehicle is also very good, connected to the carplay, with a 10.1-inch touch screen at hand, listening to the soothing music in the bang & olufsen sound, but also added a sense of tranquility to this northwest trip.
Follow National Highway 315 for about 36 kilometers northwest to Reach Lake Kinel. West Taiwan Kinel Lake originally belonged to the same lake as East Taiwan Kinner Lake, the lake retreated and was divided into two, and The 315 National Highway passed through the middle of West Taiwan Kinner Lake, and the left and right lakes were clearly distinguished. When the vehicle passes through it, with sapphires on one side and green emerald on the other, occasionally birds cross the water, beautiful and strange.
Usut, located between Lake Kinel in the east and Lake Kinnel in the west, is a maverick existence. There are many Yadan landforms in the world, but the water Yadan is only available here, and these waters come from the melting snow of kunlun mountains, which eventually form a magical landform combining lakes and small hills. Due to the remote location of Yadan on the water, it is suitable for self-driving tours while viewing the landscape, feeling like walking in a forgotten world, after all, this is also a unique scenery on the earth.
I didn't expect Usut at sunset to amaze me again. In the cool season, flocks of water birds and wild ducks play in the lake water, and as the sky darkens, the light and shadow hit Yadan and sparkle. People, cars, and water yadans rely on each other in the afterglow of sunset, outlining the beauty of the desert, and can't help but lament the painting ability of nature.
It is said that "South Kunlun, North Qilian, eight hundred miles down the mountain and the Hanhai." "What are the surprises of the vast Qaidam Basin? The Red Cliffs, located on the northwest side of the Qaidam Basin, still hide a patch of Earth's original colors. It is full of hills and Danxia landforms, with ravines and ravines in the area, and the occasional wind and sand will make the red land appear visual.
Driving deep into the Red Cliff Valley, every frame is a shocking blockbuster, as the saying goes: "Only the clouds in the sky can remind that this is not Mars, but the Qaidam Basin." ”
I ended the trip to the Great Northwest reluctantly, driving the Audi Q7, through the Gobi, over the dunes, through the flat road, and also experienced the steep cross-country section, the vehicle is very powerful no matter what kind of road conditions. It is no exaggeration to say that a self-driving tour to the northwest to see the scenery is worth ten ordinary trips. If you have time, you can arrange it too!