I can't leave you in such a good place (I can't hide such a good place in Qaidam)

Presumably, you should have visited these places on various platforms more or less this year-such as Aiken Spring, Devil's Eye, Jin 'er Lake in Dongtai, Qinghai Branch in Maldives, and China version of route 66 3 15 National Highway. Since we are internet celebrities, we simply take care of them.

Writing and Photography: Xiao Qiang in Zhang Yang

Geographically, they are all part of the Qaidam Basin, mainly located in Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province. When it comes to the natural scenery of Qinghai, I believe most people will only think of Qinghai Lake, the Hoh Xil in the movie "Hoh Xil" and Chaka Salt Lake, one of the earliest attractions of China Internet celebrities.

Qinghai Lake

cacao

Kaka salt lake

Among all these scenic spots, only Chaka Salt Lake, the earliest network celebrity, belongs to the Qaidam Basin, which is located at the eastern end of easy access. However, Chaka Salt Lake is just one of many salt lakes in Qaidam Basin, and it is not a heavyweight in any way. It is necessary to talk about the cause of the fire-perhaps the most convenient transportation.

Before this, even some travelers who are keen on going to the world rarely said that they would go to the Qaidam Basin. In fact, Qaidam basin is a huge closed intermountain fault basin. Located in the northwest of Qinghai Province, surrounded by Kunlun Mountain, Qilian Mountain and Altun Mountain, it is one of the four great basin in China and the basin with the highest elevation, with the lowest elevation close to 2,600 meters. At the same time, the natural landscape is arid desert, and the main soil types are saline desert soil and gypsum desert soil. To put it bluntly, it is tall, far, wild, gray, extremely dry and naturally unpleasant.

However, in the eyes of geologists, Qaidam Basin is a "cornucopia" rich in iron, copper, tin, salt and other minerals. "Qaidam" is Mongolian, meaning "salt". It is also because of these salts that Qaidam is colorful.

The barren 3 15 national highway really has nothing but the endless Gobi.

The following is the introduction of normal tourists from Xining to the east and west along the 3 15 national road:

If you cross the rubber mountain pass at an altitude of more than 3,800 meters from Qinghai Lake, even if you enter the Qaidam Basin, it means that you have entered the arid northwest region from the eastern monsoon region of Qinghai Province, which means that there are fewer and fewer green vegetation to see later.

The first stop is of course Chaka Salt Lake.

Of course, I won't introduce it too much.

Let's go straight to the next stop.

Heishishan reservoir

Then it will arrive in Delingha, the third largest city in Qinghai Province. The most famous places nearby are Crook Lake and Tuosu Lake, collectively known as Tallian Lake, which belong to the old-school scenic spots. Coupled with the gimmicky "alien relics", it has become a "must-go place" for traditional tour groups, but as long as it is compared with the next "big wave", it will become a "big wave" every second-it is not recommended to do too much when the trip is limited. It is not even as good as the Heishishan Reservoir and Qilian Mountain around the city, and it is free.

Continuing to the west for 200 kilometers, I think the phrase "God knocked over the palette" is the Jade Lake in Dachaidan.

Dachaidan Emerald Lake is actually a part of Dachaidan Lake. In the early years, it was not a scenic spot at all, but the mining area of the former Dachaidan Chemical Plant Salt Lake Mining Team.

Because the brine on the lake is rich in boron, potassium and lithium plasma, the pits in industrial mining are different in size, showing different colors such as blue, green, red and yellow, and even changing under different lighting angles, resulting in extremely rich colors of the lake.

There are big and small. In fact, there is a small Chaidan Lake near National Highway 3 15. The difference is that Dachaidan Lake is a salt lake and Xiaochaidan Lake is a saltwater lake.

From Xiaochaidan Lake to the west along the 3 15 national road, about 150 kilometers, it is the most popular Dongtai Jinaier Lake.

This is the online celebrity lake that really became popular in an instant this year. Even last year, many old local drivers didn't know about it.

Why?

This should be combined with the nearby water Ya Dan and Xitai Jiner Lake.

In fact, these three lakes have always existed, and they are only twenty or thirty kilometers apart. They are mainly replenished by the Lenggele River and its tributaries, which originated from the Hutubanyi Snow Mountain in Kunlun Mountain and the Bukadaban Snow Mountain, and by the flood in rainy season. These inland lakes in Qaidam Basin are particularly sensitive to climate and human activities.

In a word, in recent years, human beings have built dams nearby to block the connection between rivers and lakes, mined brine, built artificial salt pans and discharged old brine, which has led to changes in the spatial pattern, function and area of salt lakes in the basin. The diversion of Dongtai Jinaier River, the main recharge source of Dongtai Jinaier Lake, almost completely blocked the access to the lake, which led to the gradual transformation of Dongtai Jinaier Lake into a dry salt lake. As the water level continues to drop, this pushes the "Qinghai branch of Maldives" to your eyes.

Blue-green lake water and crystal salt are particularly bright under the sunlight, and blue and white come into view, which makes people feel happy. A beautiful world without color matching is presented here.

It is no exaggeration to say that,

This is the most beautiful water that the author has seen with the naked eye after traveling to dozens of countries and hundreds of cities.

None of them.

Ya Dan, just over 20 kilometers away, is also unique.

Ya Dan landform is very common in northwest China, which is taken from the Uygur language Yaldang. It is a special landform, eroded by strong winds and forms a unique ridge-shaped remnant hill.

There are really not many places where there is no rain on the earth's surface, and most of the landforms are formed by water to some extent. However, after the early sea water dried up and the sediments stabilized, almost no water participated in the formation of Ya Dan landform. Yes, Ya Dan was blown out by the wind, so it is also called wind erosion landform.

In the past 20 years, Ya Dan on the water has basically remained on the shore. At this time, "Ya Dan on the Water" is only a small lake with 6 square kilometers, named Duck Lake. With the diversion of the river, the water from Lengrad River began to flow into Duck Lake. Coupled with global warming, glacial meltwater accelerated and floods soared. By 20 15, Duck Lake had become the largest lake in the region, reaching 288 square kilometers.

Ya Dan, on the north side of Hu Ya and Hunan, is partially submerged in the water, showing a large-scale Ya Dan landscape on the water, which is the first case in the world at present.

However, due to the loose and unstable structure of lake sediments, to put it bluntly, the collapse process of mounds will be greatly accelerated after being soaked in lake water, so please hurry up.

On the water surface more than 20 kilometers west of Ya Dan, it is West Taijiner Lake.

Similarly, because of the diversion of rivers, the water in nearby Yiliping Lake began to flow into the northwest of Xitai, forming a new water area, and a certain scale of water Ya Dan appeared, thus breaking the monopoly of Duck Lake and even robbing the wild ducks in Duck Lake.

I'm kidding, but this part of the waters in Ya Dan area is not open due to various reasons such as geology and environmental protection.

The area of Xitai Jinaier Lake gradually increased and began to "invade" National Highway 3 15. The lake was divided into two by the highway, and today's two-color lake was formed because of the different mineral ion contents on the surface.

Continue to meet a fork in the road to the west, follow 3 15 all the way to Mangya, and take 305 provincial highway to the north to reach Lenghu Town. My recommendation doesn't matter, because there is a mysterious Martian highway between Lenghu and Mangya.

The starting point of "Mars Highway 1" is the location of Lenghu No.5 Oil Base, and the end point is between 953 km and 954 km signs of G3 15 National Highway, with a total length of 88 km.

This is a road I think is beautiful and cruel.

Of course, apart from the bad road conditions, with the deepening, all kinds of Ya Dan are completely exposed to you, not a certain type of Ya Dan in the scenic spot, but a variety of Ya Dan types coexist, including flat-topped square Ya Dan, jagged Ya Dan, pyramid-shaped Qiuyadan, lighthouse-shaped Ya Dan and so on.

About 66 kilometers,

We'll go to Mars camp-

In fact, it is also the entrance to Oberlian Ya Dan.

Oberyadan is called "the most unlike place on earth" because of its peculiar Martian landform, and the Mars camp is at the foot of the mountain. However, at present, due to the protective construction and development, the construction period of Obo Ryadan is closed in stages, and the friends still need to wait.

There are many landforms here in Ya Dan. Why does O 'Brien have such a high reputation?

As mentioned earlier, Ya Dan is a wind erosion landform, so most of it is streamlined according to the wind direction, and some of it, such as the Nanbaxian Ya Dan near You Xiang, is round and turtle-backed.

Nanbaxian Ya Dan

Ya Dan in Aobaoliang is a ridge on the vast Gobi. Because it is surrounded by the wind, there are a lot of unique conical columnar Ya Dan on the top of the mountain.

Please feel "the most unlike place on earth".

Surprisingly,

There is also a sulfide hot spring on the top of the mountain.

But not as spectacular as Aiken's spring.

When you get off the Mars Highway, you can go straight to Huatugou Town, Mangya, where you can see a "Jade Lake" that really looks like jade.

Mangya Emerald Lake is also an artificial salt lake, which belongs to magnesium sulfate subtype. There is a layer of rock salt at the bottom, generally 5 meters thick, and the thickest part is 9.68 meters. The lake is rich in salt products such as lithium, potash fertilizer and mirabilite. The difference between Dachaidan and Dachaidan is still obvious: one is small and dazzling, and the other is magnificent.

After more than ten years of meticulous "beauty care" by potash workers, the color of magnesium sulfate brine is pure and transparent, such as jadeite embedded in Gobi, which is almost the same in texture and fully worthy of the word jadeite.

Then start from Huatugou town in the southwest, drive along a dirt road for 80 kilometers, and reach the foot of Kunlun Mountain at the other end of Qaidam Basin, and Xinjiang is beyond the mountain.

Please try to feel the vast Kunlun Mountain, where the scenery is extremely beautiful and the climate is extremely bad.

Aiken spring,

Also known as the eye of the cliff,

"Aiken" is translated as "source" in Mongolian.

This is a geothermal hot spring that has been spewing for thousands of years.

The earliest accurate record of this spring is the Russian explorer and traveler Poole Geval. During the period from 1883 to 1885, he explored Qinghai and Xinjiang and wrote Towards Lop Nur, in which Aiken Spring was mentioned.

Because it is rich in sulfide, it is difficult for every inch of grass to grow for a long time and gradually precipitate, just like a layer of crab yellow hard shell, just forming a shape similar to a "soil pupil".

According to people around you, 40 years ago, you can see that this spring can spray more than half a meter high. Although the spray force is greatly reduced now, the posture is still there. So the locals say Aiken Spring is terrible. Not only is nothing growing everywhere, but even birds and animals are destined to come here.

But in fact,

The adaptability of animals is beyond imagination.

There are many media reports that it can repel insects and mosquitoes here. In fact, mosquitoes here can turn on the "suicide bomber" mode, and thin pants can bite for you!

On the other hand, for ordinary tourists, if there is no drone overlooking from the perspective of God, it is still difficult to experience the shock of the devil's eye. However, there are two blue Koizumi dozens of meters around the spring, among which the famous one is "Little Apple Spring", which I think is also like a love affair.

Space is limited, so I will simply show you the elegant demeanor of the Qaidam Basin, and there are more and better scenery waiting for you to explore. Believe me, the Qaidam Basin is definitely worth your visit.

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