新疆 Day 2 - Mountains

We boarded a large tour bus that took us into the mountains since private vehicles are not permitted into the designated scenic areas. It was filled with other tour groups from different places in China, and the people were very excited and very loud. Our first stop on the mountain road overlooked a river, and we all got off for pictures. I found a walkway leading down the valley towards the water. There were wildflowers everywhere, yellow and white. Trees I thought looked like aspens swayed in the wind, leaves flipping back and forth, the whole tree shimmering in the sun. Clouds cast their own shadows on the mountainside as they floated by overhead.

 

My dad and my uncle

It was breathtakingly beautiful at that first stop, and I was so in love with the view that I was sad to board the bus once more. We stopped at numerous other places too: there were platforms perched at the edge of a cliff, walkways looking out at green fields sprinkled with flowers and dotted with cows and sheep. Here and there, the local people of ethnic minorities had their cloth tents and wooden houses, smoke rising into the clear mountain air as small, brightly-dressed children stood in doorways to stare. At some stops, we stayed for a long time, but at others we moved on after five minutes or so. 

hmm, bonus picture