新疆 Day 3 - Golden Afternoon

Our next stop was a place they call the Rainbow Beach, which wasn’t very rainbow when we got there in late afternoon but is supposed to shine all different colours in the early hours of morning and also at sunset. There was a very clean washroom, and a walkway that looked like it was freshly paved. A stand sold melon slices and snacks, including the provincial trademark lamb skewers. 

 

 I wandered sleepily away from the others, following the tangle of boardwalks that went through the rock formations of the “beach”. There were quite a few other tourists, but not too many since it was nearing the end of the day. Here and there guards watched me passing by, smoking and chatting in their little shelters by the boardwalk. I tried to take pictures with my phone as I went, but the afternoon sunlight was surprisingly strong and left me unable to see my screen at all. In some places the rocks rose on either side of the walkway like waves of gold and sand that gave a deserted and isolated feeling, and in others the boards crested those waves to review a view of the brilliantly shining river. There was a stiff wind blowing off the water, keeping the heat away leaving me almost chilly in the otherwise warm afternoon air. I went all the way to the end of the walkway and saw a pretty bridge spanning the river, and some other buildings where the rocks levelled out. I stood and watched a man throwing rocks into a murky yellow puddle with two children, a laughing and squealing moment crystallized in an endless afternoon moment.