新疆 Day 3 – Rustic Charm

In the morning we rose early and packed our stuff to leave the hotel. Our driver took us to a spot where we could catch another bus to go into a different mountainous region. As the bus lurched its way along the narrow road, we could see glimpses of the mountains and valleys through the trees. When I woke up from a nap, I was greeted with a brilliant view. The side of the road dropped into a deep valley, vast and green, surrounded by mountains that rose up and sloped gently, covered with grass and trees. It reminded me of some vague impression I have of Lord of the Rings (though I’ve never seen the movies), or some other romantic, fairytale scene like that.

 

Our bus took us into that valley, where a relatively small village was situated. We made our way among the wooden houses, down dirt roads littered with animal defecation, until we reached a bridge over a rushing river. On the other side of the bridge was the way up the mountainside, going to the lookout point. Our guide told us that the government had placed restrictions on this village, forbidding them from building in stone or brick in order to maintain the traditional log-house feel for tourists to see. The local people get around this by putting up walls in brick and then covering them with wood on the outside. Most of them are of ethnic minorities, living off business from tourists who pay for tours, souvenirs, and meals. 


The dialect the locals speak is pretty, with rolling and bubbling sounds that are a little bit like what I remember of Russian. Their Mandarin is accented, and hard for me to understand, although they can understand our Mandarin perfectly. They tend to swallow syllables when they speak, making Mandarin flow more smoothly than it usually does. 

 

新疆 Day 3 – I’m on a horse!

My uncle magnanimously agreed to ride a horse up the mountain with me, so we hired two horses and a guide to go with us. My dad and my cousin opted to go up on foot in search of more opportunities to take photos. The trails up the mountain begin on the banks of a small river.

 
Here’s a picture my dad took of me when he met us on the way back down. The horses are closer to ponies, short but powerful, probably adapted to mountain-climbing. My guide was a woman who seemed young to me, despite her sun-darkened and creased skin. She spoke lilting Mandarin to me, curious to know where I had come from and what I thought of China. I thoroughly impressed my uncle by managing to carry on a halting conversation with the guide, telling her about myself and asking some basic questions.

新疆 Day 3 – Go Tell It on the Mountain

The view was breathtaking when we walked out across the lookout area. The village below became a toy village with little toothpick houses and ant people scuttling about. These pictures are from my dad’s camera, with some post-processing, but the sights really were that impressive in real life. There was an area fenced off for the tourists, but beyond that fence the grass went on and on until it disappeared into the base of a dark looming mountain. The mountains seemed at the same time so close and so far away, both within reach and impossibly high. I could not stop staring, did not know where I should fix my eyes, because the beauty was so astounding and incredible. Part of my heart ached, cried that I should never leave this place, that I should stay where I was and spend the rest of my days drinking in the view. This is the grandeur of Creation, in a place so remote and almost forgotten, where civilization still respects the rules of nature and where the beauty of the earth is still unspoiled.

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.

 

 

新疆 Day 3 - Ghost Town

After another long sleepy ride, we arrived at the “Ghost Town”. It’s in the desert region, similar to some of those places in Arizona and Nevada where the wind and sand has carved out eerie rock formations. The sun was just setting as we got there, and the place was almost empty. Still, we managed to have about five other people join us on the tacky little shuttle/train that carried us into the park along a well-paved road. 

Looking back at the pictures, the atmosphere was pretty ghostly indeed, but at the time it was so windy that I stood in the haze with my back to the blowing sand and my hood all the way up. I was actually stuck holding the camera and tripod bags so I was a little bit despondent at the time.

There were camels there, and the guys called out to me “Want a ride, pretty girl?” and I really wanted to say yes but my cousin had told me there would be no time and told me to stay where I was. I had 3000RMB in my bag, I knew how to ask in Chinese, and I ended up staying there ten minutes before the group moved on. My hesitation might have made this lost chance one of the top three regrets in my life so far. ;) I mean, how many chances do you come across to ride a camel in a legit desert in the middle of nowhere? 

The resident photographers...