Reset search
China
Satellite

China
Ili Kazak Zizhizhou

Discover travel destinations of travelers writing a travel journal on FindPenguins.
Travelers at this place
    • Peking to Paris
      12
      Day 18

      13. Tag - Forest Park Camp to Khorgos

      May 30 in China ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

      Unsere letzte Nacht in China !🤗
      Wir sind überrascht über die Gastfreundlichkeit der Menschen und überhaupt den Eindruck, den wir von diesem Land gewonnen haben. Seit unserem letzten Aufenthalt hier, sind seither 12 Jahre vergangen. So viel hat sich seither geändert. In diesem Land gibt es keine alten Autos mehr und alle sind extrem interessiert an unseren Oldtimern !!
      Wir durften in diesen letzten Tagen sehr viel erleben und durch abwechslungsreiche Gegenden fahren - dies möchten wir nicht missen !!

      Im Camp sind wir bereits um 7.24 Uhr gestartet.
      Die letzte Etappe in China fahren wir auf dem Highway (350 km) an die Grenze zu Kasachstan - nach Khorgos. Die letzten ca. 100 km kamen bei uns Heimatgefühle auf. Auf einer Höhe von ca. 2‘150 m.ü.M. sieht die Landschaft aus wie in der Schweiz - See - Berge und Wälder - die Nadelbäume stehen in Reih und Glied !! Mmh - wow - es kommt uns wie nicht echt vor !!

      Am Abend ist wie immer viel los auf dem Parkplatz - viele interessierte Chinesen, die Bilder mit uns machen wollen und unsere Autos bewundern. Wir sind ja mal gespannt, ob dies in Kasachstan auch so sein wird !?

      Our last night in China !🤗 We are surprised - the hospitality of the people here and all we‘ve seen here. The last trip here in this country - it is over 12 years ago. A lot have changed - there are no old cars and all are very interested in our oldtimers.
      In the last few days - we had the possibility to see different landscapes and we will not forget that.

      In the camp - we startet at 07:24 a.m. The last legin China we drive on the highway (350 km) to the border of Kasachstan until Khorgos. The last 100 km we felt like in Switzerland. Lakes, mountains and pine trees - wow - it seems like not real !!

      In the evening, it‘s very busy, where we have park our cars. The Chinese People are very interested in our cars and we are wondering, it will be the same in Kasachstan?!      Read more

      See translation
    • Our OE
      Day 44

      Nalati National Scenic Area

      May 15 in China ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

      Today we returned to Nalati National Scenic area and this time drove to the highland meadow area. After arriving we took a short bus trip near the top of the mountains to an area that still had snow (although it was meeting rapidly in the spring heat). Nice little area with a couple of hawks/eagles circling around in the updraft.

      After taking some photos we headed back down and had a little picnic in the grass. A couple of short stops for some more photos with the sheep/cows/horses before we left the area. Getting a bit fatigued by all the grasslands and mountain views and starting to look forward to some different tourist activities once we leave Xinjiang.

      We had a Chinese BBQ for dinner. The first place we looked at has an awesome display of food, but on closer inspection it looked like some of the heat was old and had been sitting out for a while so we moved on to another vendor with fresher looking food (which was 100% the right call). When looking around the streets and listening to the music, you would be excused for thinking you had left China and ended up in the Middle East.

      At the end of our meal (about 10pm) we enjoyed watching a pretty little sunset. Back to the hotel for some rest with a long (at least 10h) drive back to Urumqi tomorrow.      Read more

    • Our OE
      Day 41–43

      Kurdnin Scenic Reserve & Skyhawk Mesa

      May 12 in China ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

      After having a blast exploring Kalajun Scenic Farms Reserve, Vela caught some sort of bug, causing a mild fever and sore throat. This meant a couple of slightly quieter days. We did spend one night glamping in Kurdnin scenic reserve. Fortunately there was a heater in our tent but we still didn't get the best sleep. Our luck also ran out and while in Kurdnin we had drenching, misty rain - not ideal for camping. We made the best we could of the situation.

      After Kurdnin we headed for another little town - Nalati - nearby to another scenic reserve. After a good night's sleep with a solid roof over our heads, it was time to get some fresh air and stretch our legs. So we hit the Skyhawk Mesa hiking trail. 2777 steps taking us from 1500m to 1800m - it was a reasonably demanding hike.

      Vela still wasn't 100% but managed to get about halfway before turning back with Sunny and Clara. Nathan and Mei continued on to the top and were greeted with some pretty epic views of the mountains and valleys. While they were busy getting their photos, there was some movement in the ground nearby. A little video showed this busy little guy, beavering away conducting earthworks. We think it was a vole.

      On the way back down Mei taught Nathan some new Mandarin - Wo Men Hui Lai Liao, meaning "we made it back!" There were also some interesting/funny motivational signposts on the trail, too focused on making it to the top on the way up, Nathan stopped to have a read of them on the way down and took photos of the best ones.

      Ready for a nice hot shower to recover from that one!      Read more

    • Our OE
      1
      Day 37

      Mongol Bao (Yurt)

      May 8 in China ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

      After we'd had enough sightseeing, we headed for tonight's accommodation. We were booked to stay in a "Mongol Bao" - literally meaning Mongolian steamed bun, but known to most of us as a Yurt. We approached the spot where we were told to go, and just as we turned to go off road we were stopped by a police car.

      After a bit of discussion, it turns out that none of the yurts in the area are legal due to fire safety and licensing issues. The police told us that they'd shut this particular site down recently, and that even though we could see the Mongol Bao's on the hillside, they were empty. They also warned us against staying in them as there had been cases of theft by local farmers, leaving tourists with no phones and no way of contacting anyone for help.

      Following this discussion, Vela called the person we had booked with, and he said they had moved to another location. He said to come and have a look at the setup if we were concerned about safety. We had a look, and Nathan was very strongly against staying there, feeling that the police wouldn't warn us against it for no reason, however he was out voted 4-1 by the girls, so that was that.

      The site was very pretty, overlooking the lake with the snowy mountains behind. It was pretty cold by this point in the evening, but the fire inside the tent kept everything nice and toasty. However just as we were settling in for the night, the police showed up again. Their intent was to close the site down and kick everyone out as it was not a legal accommodation. Vela did some quick negotiations, saying it was booked through a big travel agency website and how were we to know that it wasn't legal? She also said it was too hard to find other accommodation at this point, and they relented and fortunately allowed us to stay the night. It did put a bit of a negative spin on what otherwise could have been an amazing experience.

      After a chilly nights sleep, we awoke again to an amazing blue sky. So we took advantage of the beautiful location before heading on our way again.      Read more

    • Our OE
      Day 40

      Exploring Kalajun

      May 11 in China ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

      We woke up this morning to find that our host was telling us the truth about the mountains. It was still quite hazy though so they didn't photograph very well (hence very heavily edited images to try and show what we could actually see). We were treated to a delicious little breakfast by our hosts, who were absolutely amazing, before we set out to explore more of Kalajun.

      On our way we saw fields full of yellow flowers, and our brains were thoroughly messed with as there was snow on the roadside, even though it was close to 30 degrees outside... We headed to a spot called "Flying Falcons Scenic Outlook" which had a great view of the mountains. Song the way we were overtaken by a herd of noisy sheep being driven to new fields. We saw a couple of birds of prey in the sky, soaring on the air currents.

      After we'd had enough of the scenery, we tried to head to a nearby canyon which is full of adventure tourism activities, but the wind has really got up by this point (struggling to open the car does), and Vela even joked "how did we end up back in Wellington?" Because of the wind, the gondola was closed, so we took a couple of photos before leaving Kalajun and heading to our accommodation. We were lucky to find our accommodation had a hot tub, so we made use of that, Nathan a little gingerly due to his sunburn (maybe a result of the geomagnetic storm causing all the crazy lights in the night sky?)      Read more

    • Our OE
      Day 39

      The road to Kalajun

      May 10 in China ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

      A slow morning today. After such delicious samsa yesterday we returned to the same little shop and were treated to watching the process of making the samsa. Today they were making them in a slightly different shape called Palmoudan (I think that's what he was saying) which basically meant it was pressed using your hand. Once they were further, the samsa are stuck to the inside of a clay oven to bake before being scraped off to eat. Vela's mum even had a little dance with the kitchen team to some local Xinjiang music!

      After lunch we made a quick stop at a little town called Tekesi famous for its layout of an 8-diagram which is essentially 4 ring roads in the shape of an Octagon with roads segmenting them through their points. The shape is significant in Buddhist culture. Vela flew the drone to capture some of the shape, but the drone is limited to about 120m so we couldn't quite show the whole layout - but I'm sure you get the idea. Before leaving we made sure to sample some locally made ice cream.

      Then it was onwards to our main destination - Kalajun. Kalajun is kind of difficult to describe, it felt like we were staying on a farm (which I guess we were) but it was also a scenic park with tourist activities. The best label I could put on it would be a "scenic farm reserve." On our way in we drove up steep cliffs to where the landscape turned into Highland meadows with rolling hills. We passed herds of sheep, cattle and horses, and there were plenty of marmots doing their thing in the fields too. We arrived at our Mongol Bao camp for the evening, we got much better vibes here than in Sayram Lake. Apparently there is a view of snowy mountains from the Mongol Bao, but we couldn't see anything due to the haze.

      Our host offered us to head on a short horse ride, about 2 hours, which we quickly accepted. It was great fun walking the horses over to the forest and back, although they might have needed a bigger horse for Nathan...

      After our mini trek, we returned to our Mongol Bao and had a lamb hotpot for dinner before settling down for some much needed rest.      Read more

    • Our OE
      Day 38

      Through the mountains to Yining

      May 9 in China ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

      Shorter day on the road today, with just 3 hours driving. Before leaving, wet find a spot and played with the drone for a bit. We headed through the mountains and stopped for a couple of photos, admiring the much greener grass in the valley with the backdrop of the snow capped mountains.

      We then made our way out of the mountains and into Yining. We had a very late lunch at about 4pm (remembering the clocks are a bit weird as they run on Beijing time, so are at least 2 hours out from what we'd expect based on the sun). Lunch consisted of these little lamb filled pastries called Samsa, which were amazing and reminded us a little of an NZ meat pie or sausage roll. We had these with a side of lamb soup.

      We then checked into our hotel, which is quite a famous hotel which was originally for diplomats from the old USSR back in the day. The room we had was right at the top on the 12th floor, and was a suite split over two levels with far more space than we could ever need. It cost about 600 yuan ($150nzd), so was quite a steal.

      We headed back out into town for some Majiang. We upped the stakes but Nathan and Vela didn't quite get the rub of the green, but Sunny outdid everyone - the only player who won any money. After getting a bit carried away with the Majiang we had dinner at about midnight, BBQ lamb and beef. Yum!      Read more

    • Our OE
      Day 37

      Sayram Lake

      May 8 in China ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

      Big day today. We woke up and opened our curtains to see beautiful blue sky. We were very surprised to find that we had a view of the snowy "Sky Mountains" range, especially given it was already 23 degrees outside at 9am.

      After breakfast we set off, and we had endless views of plains all around us on the highway. More of the same cereal crop being farmed and also a cargo train crossing the landscape. A couple of wispy clouds also started to form, providing the sky with a bit of interest.

      After driving for a couple of hours, we could see what looked like a lake in the distance. It turned out to be a solar farm which stretched on and on. We drove for about 10 minutes and still couldn't see the end of it. This was then followed by a big wind farm, with towering turbines dotting the hills and plains. Really cool to see renewable energy sources being built, and the sheer scale of them was very impressive.

      After the wind farm we finally made it to Sayram Lake. The lake was stunning with barely a ripple on it, making for some fun photography with the snow dusted mountains reflecting in the lake's surface. We drove around the lake to an area where the snow came right down to the water. There was a boardwalk heading up through the pine trees so we hiked up the hills a little way. We found a nice little area for a picnic, so we stopped. Today is also Vela's mums (Mei) birthday, and the girls had prepared a couple of little sweet treats to celebrate. On our way back down, we briefly spied what we think was a Bobak Marmot, before it scurried underneath the walkway.

      Afterwards we hiked back down the path to the car and drove to tonight's accommodation.      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Ili Kazak Zizhizhou, 伊犁

    Join us:

    FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android

    • 2024© FindPenguins
    • Home
    • About us
    • Blog
    • Group Tracking
    • Press
    • Terms
    • Privacy Policy & Cookies
    • Support
    • Legal notice
    • English