What’s delicious and fun in Qitai?

When it comes to snacks in Qitai, the locals are all excited and talking about things like potato fish roe, poached fish roe, mutton braised pancakes, pulled strips, pulled slices, Qitai Xiangshili Tukeng barbecue, yellow rice cakes, etc. Liangpi Noodles, Wang Dan Barbecue, "Yang Mazi" Oil Cake and Guo Xiangqi Lantern Festival... there is no time to stop talking about them. Qitai snacks have three characteristics: first, they strive for excellence in workmanship and use exquisite materials; second, they are constantly innovating; third, they have distinctive characteristics and pay attention to color, aroma and taste, such as yellow noodles, cold skin, yogurt seeds, oil tarts, etc., especially the pastry snacks. Everyone who comes to Qitai must try the fried pork noodles, so there is a saying that if you don’t eat the fried pork noodles, you haven’t come to Qitai. Among the many snacks, the most scandalous is "potato fish roe". "Potato fish roe" is a kind of pasta made from potatoes and noodles. The potatoes are processed into powder, mixed with a little flour, and kneaded into the shape of loach. It can be made into soup or mixed dry. It is easy to eat. And delicious. In fact, Qitai people’s favorite food is stir-fried potato fish roe with some broth, which is fragrant and refreshing. In recent years, there is another saying in Qitai: "If you don't eat braised mutton pancakes in Qitai, your trip to Qitai is in vain." "Mutton braised pancakes" are made by cutting mutton into small pieces, mixing with oil, salt, pepper, monosodium glutamate, soy sauce and other seasonings, stir-frying, adding water, and adding ready-made pancake pieces and potato pieces to steam. It is characterized by preservation of freshness. The taste is preserved without losing the original juice. The mutton pieces are fresh, tender, fragrant and have all five flavors. There are many unique snacks in Qitai, such as the mouth-watering "leek zygotes" and the unforgettable "steamed cakes". Qitai’s ethnic snacks are also very rich, such as Hui-style oil soup, powder soup, and meatball soup; Uyghur-style pilaf, barbecue, baked buns, and naan; Kazakh-style naren, milk tea, horse breasts, and camel breasts. They are all unique folk snacks. There are also saozi noodles. Qitai’s saozi noodles have long been famous for their characteristics such as “thin, stringy, smooth, sour, spicy and fragrant”. There is a legend about the origin of steamed noodles. A long time ago, a farmer's family had to flee and die due to the war. Only the uncle and the sister-in-law were left to depend on each other. Due to successive years of drought and war, crops have failed. The smart and virtuous sister-in-law, in order to survive the famine, went out every day to collect wild vegetables and fenghui (wild seasoning plants). The collected wild vegetables and fenghui were dried, ground into powder, and mixed with the remaining bean flour, corn flour, and other ingredients at home. Wheat noodles were mixed together to make noodles, which not only provided enough food for the two of them to survive the famine, but also made the brother-in-law scream after eating them. Later, when my brother-in-law started business and started a business, he still missed the noodles made by his sister-in-law. In memory of his deceased sister-in-law, he opened a "Sister-in-law Noodles" noodle shop in Lihuajian, Qitai. When the guests ate it, they all praised it as delicious. From then on, "Sister-in-law Noodles" became famous. As time went by, "Sister-in-law Noodles" became "Saozi Noodles", which continues to this day. In the past, people associated the unique and common folk snacks with the noisy streets and alleys, smoky night markets and the hawking of vendors, so snacks have never been popular. Nowadays, famous snacks such as potato fish roe, poached fish roe, and saozi noodles, carefully crafted by Qitai people, are not only favored by Chinese and foreign merchants, but also show their prominence in Urumqi, Lanzhou, Xi'an and other places. Qitai County has distinctive tourism resources. In the south, there is the scenery of the Tianshan Mountains, with towering snow-capped glaciers reaching into the clouds, boundless forests and grasslands, quiet and graceful green valleys and streams, and the wonderful and fascinating scenery of Daotiao Ridge and Yangwatan. The strange slopes and ringing slopes of Tianshan Mountain are magical and fascinating. The central region is rich in cultural landscapes. It is a must-pass through of the ancient Silk Road and is located in the center of the "dry dock" town. It has a long history and profound cultural accumulation. It is a place where the culture of the Central Plains and the Western Regions have gathered together in history. Before liberation, there were 36 temples, among which cultural relics such as the Middle East Temple and Sanqing Palace had high archaeological and tourist value. The Gobi desert in the north is vast and majestic, with marine and terrestrial fossils from 800 million to 150 million years ago. It is praised by experts as the "Jundong Hanhai Museum" and "Prehistoric Museum". Natural wonders such as Shiqian Beach, Petrified Wood, Dinosaur Valley, and Devil City are even more mysterious and magnificent. Jiangjun Gobi is known as the "Hometown of Dinosaurs" and more than 120 dinosaur fossils have been identified in Dinosaur Valley. In 1986, Chinese and Canadian scientists unearthed the Sino-Canadian Mamensiosaurus, which is 32.9 meters long. It is the largest dinosaur fossil in Asia and the second largest in the world. It is now in the China Vertebrate Paleontology Exhibition Hall. In January 2004, Xinjiang Qitai Petrified Wood and Dinosaur Valley were awarded the "Xinjiang Qitai Petrified Wood-Dinosaur National Geopark" by the Ministry of Land and Resources.

In June 2005, Qitai Petrified Wood - the Petrified Wood Garden in Dinosaur National Geopark successfully applied for Guinness World Records - the largest petrified wood garden. The "Nuomin Wind City" in Jiangjun Gobi is commonly known as the "Devil City", with its ghostly axes and sculptures and strange scenery. It is the largest Yadan landform city discovered in the northwest region, and its color is more distinctive than the "Devil City" in Urho. , larger scale. The geological relics formed in the General Gobi Desert and its unique features are of great archaeological and tourism value. In 2006, Qitai County hosted the 3rd International Tourism Festival Silk Road New North Road Promotion Conference, and assisted the Chinese Academy of Sciences and CCTV to successfully hold the dinosaur fossil excavation and live broadcast ceremony. Qitai is not only rich in products, but also has majestic and magnificent scenery, especially the Jiangjun Gobi in the north, which is simply a showcase of magical scenery. Here, you can see the largest petrified wood group in Asia, the mysterious Nuomin Wind City and Devil's City, the illusory mirage, the fossil treasure house Shiqiantan, the fire-like Huoshao Mountain, and the world's second largest unearthed Dinosaur trench with dinosaur fossils. The cultural landscape of Qitai is also of great value, including the ruins of Shule City in the Han Dynasty, the ancient city piers in the Tang Dynasty, and the ancient customs of Dongdi Dajie in the Qing Dynasty.