Chakayan Salt Lake and Emerald Lake

30 Jun 18


We drove 50 km westward towards Chakayan Lakes. Weather was overcast and the photos of this scenic spot was not up to expectation. Blue sky would have been wonderful. The rain further dampen the moods. One must accepts when we are on holiday, nature decides and we just hope for the best. Nevertheless, it's still beautiful.

This place was really crowded. The entire stretch of shores open for public viewing was almost 5 km.
We walked there and took a train back.

 

In the afternoon we travel another 200 km westward toward another major lake called Dachaidanmu Lake. Nearby this lake is a small unique scenic spot named Emerald Lake. The gravel road leading to this lake was rough and winding. But our experienced driver Xiaowang skillfully brought us there. Its was really worth the bumpy ride there.

 

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Despite the cloudy condition, the colour of the lake is still greenish as emerald.

 There clearness and stillness of the water in the lake provides a beautiful mirror image formation

These lakes below are smaller and has been mined. I have yet to find out what minerals were mined at this lakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove back to nearby Dachaidanzhen to stay for the night.  We have lamb hot pot for dinner.

 

We stayed at this hotel. After checked in we went out for dinner. On return, we were told by hotel staff that the hotel cannot accept us as we do not have a valid visa. Hotel profusely apologized and ask us to seek another hotel. After demanding we speak to the manager, the hotel reluctantly let us stay. It was then we discovered that in Qinghai, not all hotel are permitted to house

foreigners. Subsequently we noticed many hotel operators discreetly accepted us without registration.                    

Qinghai Lake

29 Jun 18

Driving from New Lanzhou town to Qinghai Lake took almost four hours. Lanzhou elevation is approximately 5000 feet. Qinghai Lake is just over 10,000 ft. Drove through Gansu to Qinghai Province mainly through valleys with mountains on both sides of the roads. The road conditions are very good with dual or triple lanes.

We drove past the city of Xining. The biggest city in the remote part of Western China. Viewed from the road, it is pretty impressive and modern with countless high rise buildings. Xining and Lanzhou both have a few thousands years of history. They are both situated along the Northern Silk Road and both city are surrounded by mountains.

Beyond this city, the drive was mainly through barren mountains. The vegetation changes as we came nearer Qinghai Lake. We took a break at a 日月山mountain top, about 10,000 feet to see the hairy mountain cow.

Qinghai Lake is very large, many times the size of Singapore. It is a salt water lake. The area are mainly populated by people of Tibetan and Mongolian ancestry. Buddhism is the primary religion. The lake is also a place of pilgrimage. Its also a popular place for wedding photo shoots.
As the sky was overcast, we didn't see the green or blue colour of the water.

During our time there, I saw at least 5 couples struggling with their gowns and very strong winds on the shores to poised for the best take.

Along the lake are plenty of yellow canola fields open to public for a fee.

After viewing the south side of this lake, we proceeded to a local town call Heimaxiang. The accommodation was basic. We had Mongolian dishes of lamb and local vegetables.

The next morning, we had breakfast on the street side.

Yellow River Stone Forest and Hoodoo National Geopark

28 Jun

Today we headed south to Yellow River Hoodoo National Geopark and Yellow River Stone Forest. The place is located south of Zhongwei and north of Lanzhou and on the west side of Yellow River.

Plenty of activities are planned for today. But we had a simple lunch in a village home restaurant.

We drifted down the Yellow River on goat skin raft. The animal body and skeletons are skillfully extracted and the skin are then processed to make it watertight before air is pumped in and sealed to act as a floatation device. About dozen of these animal floats are then tied neatly together. A wooden platform is rigged on top of the goat skin floats to form a raft. It was the ancient way of river transportation. See picture below.

The goat skin rafts when stacked up along the shores

The raft float on water

The raft basically drifted downstream and the oarsman control it's direction. On completion, it is hauled upstream for the next use.

Our next activities was riding up the Stone Forest Mountain on a donkey cart to view the beautiful rock formation. The cart move slowly to give us time to appreciate the beautiful scenery.
It was about 3 km trek and I was amazed by the  fitness of the aged donkey handler who choose to walk. A few times the donkey was not so cooperative with the handler.

Beautiful and unique rock formation curved out by the environment

We used ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) to drive further up the rugged terrain to the top of the mountain and had a panoramic view of the surrounding mountain. Donkeys are not used as the terrain is rugged and steep at times.

Views of Yellow River from the mountain top.

It was physically and exhaustive day and the weather was hot. But nevertheless we all thoroughly enjoyed all the activities. It's so enriching and refreshing.

After a full day of exciting activities, our driver, Xiaowang drove to Lanzhou. We didn't stayed in the city centre but instead stayed in New Lanzhou. A very impressive modern city just north of the ancient city.