天山天池之旅 TianChi Lake Trip (11/6/09)
One of the must-visit place in Xinjiang. It is located at the half way up the mountain of Bogda Mountain 博格达峰 (one of the mountains within TianShan Mountain range) in FuKang district 阜康县. It's about 2 hours driving journey from Urumqi, which is suitable for a one-day trip planning.
It is a natural lake on the mountain, making the lake in low temperature all year long. This phenomena has caused the fishes and living creatures inside the lake is in small scale of size, not larger than your palm. Anyway, the myth of a 'water horse' in this huge lake existing. Duh~
Due to the temperature and climate, it is a good environment for some of the exotic herbs and animals to grow. If you ever heard of 天山雪莲 TianShan Mountain snow lotus (a kind of herb, expensive and rare), yup it is a product of TianShan Mountain.
This place is full of stories and poems and mysteries. This place is most famous of the love story between ZhouMu King 周穆王 and Lady Queen Mother 王母娘娘. The picture above shows the Temple of Niang Niang.
On the other side, there's another fabulous views of smaller-size lakes. According to Baidu, there is two smaller TianChi lake, West little TianChi 西小天池 and East little TianChi 东小天池. Each little TianChis has their own waterfalls which has the own name and beautiful description:
--West little TianChi has another name, 'the Foot Plate of Queen Wang Mu 王母脚盘'. Yeah lah the name sound weird in English (translated by me) The waterfall of West little TianChi has a chinese name 醴泉隐乳, but I don't know how to translate it.
--East little TianChi has a better English-translated name, 仙女泳池 the Swimming Pool of Fairies.
I did go to one of the 'little TianChi', but I can't recall which is which. Anyway, the view is simply fantastic!
On the other side, there's another fabulous views of smaller-size lakes. According to Baidu, there is two smaller TianChi lake, West little TianChi 西小天池 and East little TianChi 东小天池. Each little TianChis has their own waterfalls which has the own name and beautiful description:
--West little TianChi has another name, 'the Foot Plate of Queen Wang Mu 王母脚盘'. Yeah lah the name sound weird in English (translated by me) The waterfall of West little TianChi has a chinese name 醴泉隐乳, but I don't know how to translate it.
--East little TianChi has a better English-translated name, 仙女泳池 the Swimming Pool of Fairies.
I did go to one of the 'little TianChi', but I can't recall which is which. Anyway, the view is simply fantastic!
We actually went to the other route to reach this little TianChi, in the end, we had to 'run' all the way down to the foot of the mountain because everyone else was waiting for us. Oh, btw, to reach TianChi lake, we can either choose to ride the 10-minutes cable car, 10-minutes van or 30-minutes walking distance.
The tiredness was frustrating, but the waterfall accompanied us going all the way down ^^ And, I'm a big fan of waterfalls!
The tiredness was frustrating, but the waterfall accompanied us going all the way down ^^ And, I'm a big fan of waterfalls!
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