Xinjiang must come every year, this is because of the ring tower; these years, the ring tower rally has constantly changed its route, so we also followed the ring tower full of Xinjiang, running back and forth in northern Xinjiang, southern Xinjiang, and eastern Xinjiang. Most of Xinjiang has been plowed back and forth many times in 2010. The Tournament of Towers is usually held at the junction of spring and summer, and occasionally in autumn and September, but it is absolutely rare, so no matter where we go in Xinjiang, it is basically those two seasons.
The winter in Xinjiang should not come many times in my memory; the first time I went to Xinjiang in winter should be in the early 1990s. I went to a friend’s house from a long distance, and took a green train from Jiangsu for three days and three nights. In Urumqi, I sat on the bus and ran for another night. At that time, there were no expressways in Xinjiang. From Urumqi to Altay, Fuyun needed to detour through Qitai and Mulei for a paper clip.
I still clearly remember that the fat body of the Kazakh uncle sitting next to me completely blocked the residual heat of the radiator on the car. In November, the snowflakes outside the window slowly fell on the Gobi Desert in northern Xinjiang. The process of falling is like a fairy tale. When I was young, my heart was full of infinite reverie when I watched it. Everything felt so beautiful.
Except for the thunderous snoring of the Kazakh uncle.
The first time I ate noodles was also on that vast and seemingly endless Gobi desert road; when it was dark, the dusty Yangzhou 663 we were sitting in stopped in front of a snow-covered house, and no one said hello. Anyway, everyone got out of the car and rushed into the house consciously. Everyone took out five dollars and put them on the table, and I put them on the table for no reason. It felt like a bounty hunter in an American western movie entering a dueling room.
Then the restaurant clerk snatched all the money with his hand protruding from the dark white sleeve, without even saying hello.
Soon the guy came out with a large tray, and there were many plates full of noodles in the tray. He quickly put a bowl in front of everyone, and then quickly put a bowl of fried onions in front of everyone like a magic trick. Mutton – no choice but this. While I was in a daze, everyone poured the vegetables into the pasta and stirred them together.
It turns out that this is the so-called noodles.
The bus departing in the evening must not have time for dinner. The noodles are really enjoyable to eat on the way. I tried hard to eat, but I still left some on the plate, and then I suddenly heard the person next to me shouting : “Boss, add more noodles.” Then the shopkeeper brought him another portion of noodles.
My heart was full of astonishment, and I really admired how a person who was as thin as me could eat such two big plates of noodles.
It is a very coincidence that the winter in northern Xinjiang this time is still in November; the difference is that the road network in Xinjiang has been developed to an outrageous level, and we don’t have to travel at night in truck chassis and buses that shake people’s livers. I remember a few years ago when we ran the Silk Road and entered the customs from Tacheng. After experiencing repeated tortures of thousands of kilometers of washboard roads in Russia and Kazakhstan, we really cheered the moment we drove on the G-prefixed expressway.
I have been to Wucai Bay in the north of Urumqi many times, including the Wucai Canyon inside, where we used to run back and forth as a track around the tower; The house became what it is now. If you haven’t experienced it before, it must be hard to imagine how fast and amazing this place has developed.
We stayed at the Guhai Hotel in Wucai Bay at night. This hotel is built next to the hot spring eye; we have stayed back and forth many times during the Ring Tower Rally for many years, but every time it is summer, so there is no hot spring. experience. It is indeed a different feeling to soak in a hot spring outdoors in the severe cold in winter. The temperature of the hot spring water is around 40-42 degrees, and the closer you are to the spring, the higher the temperature.
In the past, many people believed that hot springs were formed because underground thermal energy heated up the groundwater under the action of ground pressure to form hot springs; of course, this is one way, but the hot springs in Wucaiwan are another way – the friction of geological cracks generates heat . Wucai Bay is located on the plate suture line of the “Karameili Fault”, so its geothermal heat appears in the form of plate friction, so the hot spring heat source here is quite special.
It is indeed a different feeling to soak in the hot springs in the cold weather; from changing into swimsuits in the dressing room to the outdoors at minus ten or twenty degrees, I feel that I am frozen hard in an instant, and then I jump into the hot spring pool tremblingly. Immediately, I felt the warmth of heaven; after going in for two minutes, it was no longer hot, and then I climbed out to dry outside, and then it was transparent in one minute, so I quickly plunged into the water to heat up. Repeated countless times like this, it is really self-knowledge after experiencing the warmth and coldness of the world.
On the way to Wucaiwan accommodation, we also went to Jimusar’s Pussar Mustang Breeding Center; the Pussy Mustang is the only wild horse population in existence. There are many stories to tell about this, but the temperature in the wild on the first day was really high. It was so cold that we were caught off guard, and we didn’t put on the thick clothes we brought, so we got out of the car and just stayed outside for a while, then hurried back to the car, watching the thick sneakers suffer in front of the cold wind on the Gobi Desert one strike.
The wild horse is the only related species in the world that retains the wild horse gene; it is completely different from the domestic horse, its skin is only brown, the mouth is white, the mane is short and hard, upright, the limbs are The lower part is black; the Pu-style wild horses used to mainly live in the Northwest. According to the region, it is more appropriate to call the Junggar wild horses, but because of the naming method formed by the international tradition, it is called the Pu-style wild horses.
The coldness of northern Xinjiang cannot be understood by those who have not been here in winter; after starting from Urumqi and heading north to the Gobi Desert, the coldness of northern Xinjiang is like us showing its charm; the first day of the itinerary is from Urumqi to Wucaiwan, the entire journey is only 200 kilometers and the whole journey is high-speed, so it is very easy.
Our itinerary on the second day was to cross the Junggar Basin from Wucai Bay; the starting section of the route started from Wucai City, which used to be a scenic spot. Later, due to environmental protection requirements, it included the Pu-style wild horse release area we mentioned earlier. It is inside, so the scenic spot is closed; in fact, this area used to be a famous stage of the Tower Tournament many years ago, and we have been here many times.
In a tributary near the town of Duge, we visited the habitat of the Mengxin beaver under the leadership of the local environmental protection agency; traditionally, there are many sayings that the beaver is a pest because it builds a dam to block the flow of the river. And gnaw trees and cause environmental damage. But after a long investigation, it was found that the opposite was true.
It is true that beavers build dams, but they only build dams on the forked tributaries of the river, and will not block the dam on the main river, so it has no effect on the smooth flow of the river. The purpose of the beaver building the embankment is to raise the water level of the surrounding embankment. After the water level rises, the soil water content near the embankment will increase, which will make the surrounding vegetation very lush and bring about the increase of associated animals and plants. The ecological environment is improved, and the various branches that the beaver eats will also grow luxuriantly, providing it with a rich source of food.
There is nothing wrong with beavers eating trees to build embankments; it does cause some tree loss, but beavers need very few trees to make embankments. And while beavers are eating trees, they will also stand some branches on the ground, and these branches will gradually grow into trees, so in terms of quantity, the trees that beavers eat are far less than The number of trees it planted; this is also the most impressive knowledge learned during this trip to Xinjiang.
When people do not know enough, it is easy to make mistakes out of context; and beavers are definitely far more than the only ones who have been “blamed”.
The whole journey across the Junggar Basin is about 120km. There is not much snowfall in northern Xinjiang this year, so the visible road on the Gobi Desert is clearly visible, which brings great convenience to our itinerary. In the process of crossing the basin, we encountered many wild animals, including red foxes, hawks, goose-throated gazelles, wild donkeys, etc. The ease of appearance of these wild animals shows that the results of environmental protection are very obvious.
The road from the Junggar Basin to the Altay region is a process of constant temperature drop; when we set off from Wucaiwan to the Junggar Basin, the temperature was only ten degrees below zero. At that time, everyone felt acceptable after getting out of the car, and many people were smoking. Chatting in twos and threes until the team leader called to get in the car, they set off; but when they arrived at Keketuohai, the temperature nearby was already close to minus 20 degrees. When they got up in the morning and walked from the town to the mountains, the lowest temperature in the mountains was already close to minus 20 degrees. Thirty degrees.
Because Keketuohai is an outlet, the body temperature is still relatively low; there is absolutely no need for the leader to call for departure during road breaks, but anyone who can not get out of the car does not get out of the car, and they are all nestled in the car and do not want to move.
But this temperature can only be regarded as “make do” in the northern Xinjiang region; because it is not uncommon for the temperature in the Altay region to drop to minus 40 degrees, and the historical records in the Altay region probably have a limit as low as minus 50 degrees. However, the Altay region—especially the Fuyun region has a great feature in winter, that is, it is often in a state of no wind, not because there is no wind in the novel—it is because there is really no trace of wind, except for the smoke from the thermal power plant. The discharge is almost vertically upward. Many times you can pull out a hair on the Gobi Desert and let go, and the hair will fall vertically to the ground.
When there is no wind, because there is less heat exchange, you don’t need to wear very thick clothes and you won’t feel particularly cold. Of course, this is a relative term. In addition, this place is often quiet like a black hole, and you can hear yourself clearly. The sound of breathing is not only the sound of air flowing, but even the sound of your lungs entering. I once stayed in Fuyun for more than a month in winter. After getting used to the quietness there, the moment I got off the bus back in Jiangsu, I found it so noisy and unacceptable.
The coldness of northern Xinjiang is very different from that of northeast China. Compared with northeast China, northern Xinjiang is extremely dry, and there are many windless conditions, so the snowfall in this place is very loose, and it is not as easy to pile up into snowballs as in northeast China. Grab a handful of snow and press it hard in your hand. After releasing it, the snow will disperse and it is difficult to form a ball. Therefore, snowball fights can easily turn into snow powder; the feeling of skiing will also be completely different.
The completely different snowfall will also cause the ground cover to be different from other places; because the snow is very loose and the temperature is extremely low, the snow in northern Xinjiang is not easy to turn into ice after being crushed by vehicles like in the Northeast. There are far fewer extremely slippery road surfaces, and it is much easier to remove snow on the road surface. Therefore, relatively speaking, the effect of using snow tires in northern Xinjiang is much better than that in northeast China. But no matter what, the safety rules for driving on ice and snow are only one word – slow, this is the most important magic weapon, everything else is bullshit.
Even if you run hard with nail tires installed, you can’t stop.
Diesel vehicles today are not at the same level as diesel engines many years ago, especially the diesel power system made according to passenger car standards. Its overall light weight, noise, power response and fuel economy are not what it used to be. Than; although they all burn diesel, they seem to have evolved into another physical existence. In the environment of minus 30 degrees, as long as the label of diesel is correct, it is completely fine as long as it is warmed up.
What should be noticed when using modern diesel engines in cold regions is that the cooling system of diesel engines is larger than that of gasoline engines, especially the cylinder block size is large, and the coolant and engine oil capacity are large, so its water temperature rises slower than that of gasoline engines, and it usually takes several kilometers to run. Therefore, if it is used in cold regions, it is best to buy a configuration with electric heated seats. Of course, it is better to install a set of preheating devices such as Webster. This system will make you feel that diesel engines are used in winter. No difference.
The No. 3 mine in Keketuohai is a miracle in the history of mineral deposits. There are rare metals such as beryllium, niobium, tantalum, and lithium in one mine, some of which account for half of the world’s proven reserves; they are aerospace and nuclear weapons. The important raw materials of the mine, started construction from the most difficult time in the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of my country, and made a significant contribution to the development of high-tech technology in our country. It is precisely because of the No. 3 mine pit that our country has advanced rare metal refining technology.
Pit No. 3 has been sealed up as a strategic reserve now; as a mine with a long history, it also stores the stockpile that was mined but not fully refined when the technology was backward, and Pit No. 3 is actually a straw hat-like mineral deposit structure. Only the top part of the hat was collected, and most of the brim of the hat was not mined, so it is still a mineral deposit with great value potential.
The Irtysh Grand Canyon came to the tower two years ago, but it was summer; the mountain flowers were full of birds and flowers, and the blue-green river poured down from the valley. Kazakh herdsmen drove their cattle and sheep to graze in it. amorous feelings. When winter comes again, the two worlds are completely the same. All the roads are covered with snow, and both valleys and rivers turn into a vast expanse of whiteness.
Many of the mountains in the Irtysh Grand Canyon are granite, that is, the thing that your house laid on the ground; and it is of a very good texture. At the same time, because this area belongs to a relatively special structure, there are so-called granite in many mountains. The stone pillars, that is, the underground magma is pushed to the crust by the earthquake, but it is not exposed to the surface, and after cooling, it forms an independent column in the rock.
The fourth season of our scientific research ended in the Altay region; the Altay region, including Keketuohai and Fuyun County, are rich in various gems and strange stones. Although the prices have risen again and again over the years, compared to the metropolises and the mainland , it’s still much cheaper, especially in winter, there are almost no tourists here except skiers, and the prices during the half-year winter break will naturally not inflate as much as in summer, so if you come to Altay in winter, take a few beautiful stones Going back is still a very good harvest.
Itinerary and pictures taken along the way in the northern Xinjiang area:
