A trip to Xinjiang under the shadow of the epidemic

The eight-day trip to Xinjiang has finally come to an end. It should be said that this is an unsatisfactory journey.

Before we set out, we repeatedly confirmed that the land in Xinjiang was still safe. However, the epidemic situation is like the mutation of COVID-19 strain, and the speed is hard to prevent. After our flight landed at Diwobao International Airport in Urumqi, we heard that a person who entered Xinjiang had tested positive for nucleic acid the night before and had been sent to the designated isolation point for closed-loop management.

During the period of digital epidemic control, the response speed of epidemic prevention and control in Xinjiang is no different from that in the mainland. Since our flight into Xinjiang, the Urumqi epidemic prevention army has been deployed at the airport entrance, checking the passenger's itinerary code and health code one by one, and doing nucleic acid on the spot before releasing.

before I set out from Wuhan, I only knew that the epidemic situation in Jilin and Shanghai was severe. I never thought that the remote and sparsely populated northwest border was also shrouded in the haze of the epidemic.

led by the local tour guide, our group bypassed Urumqi on the first day of entering Xinjiang and stayed in a hotel in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, which is half an hour's drive from Urumqi.

in the next few days, the trip started the "breakthrough mode"-according to the previously arranged tourist routes, it is uncertain whether each scenic spot can arrive smoothly. Every time you pass a checkpoint, public security personnel board the bus to check the trip code, health code and ID card one by one. Every time you enter an administrative area (city, state and county), you have to do a nucleic acid test no matter how you go back and forth, and you can only enter if you are allowed.

In the Sailimu Lake Scenic Area, which must pass from Changji to Yining (where the state capital of Yili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture is located), the lake is still covered with ice and snow, and because of the epidemic control, we are not allowed to enter the scenic area, so the tourist bus has to temporarily stop on the road around the lake, and let our party take photos and punch in from a distance across the guardrail of the scenic area to show "a trip here".

Although Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture has successfully "broken through", a large number of wild apricot trees in the apricot blossom ditch in Turgen have not yet blossomed, and the Lanati grassland is still covered with snow, and the green grass and red flowers can't be seen, so naturally, shepherds and beekeepers can't be met.

wherever I went, the trees didn't sprout, the lawn didn't turn green, and as far as I could see, it was bleak and desolate.

The journey from Changji to Yili is nearly 7 kilometers, almost all of which are spent on tourist buses. This is nothing, at least it has reached its destination.

the most potholes should go to Turpan first. We bumped on the bus for several hours, and finally reached the border of Turpan, but we were told at the entrance that Turpan would not accept foreign visitors because of the epidemic control. Most people in the car have been tossed out of temper, and several people who are "dissatisfied with the week" got off the bus to negotiate, and provided the results of nucleic acid testing once a day before, but they were still not released. The tourist bus had to turn around and return to Changji.

Most of the scenic spots that I should visit in Xinjiang failed to arrive as planned, and I didn't see the scenery I wanted to see. In the words of the tour guide in Xinjiang, "it is a little early."

However, this trip to Xinjiang is not without its benefits.

every step of life is not in vain, and every step counts. It's either a lesson or an insight.

We bumped for 7 kilometers along the Tianshan Mountains on the Lianhuo Expressway, the main road of the Belt and Road, and finally saw only wild apricot trees that have not blossomed all over the mountains. Although it is regrettable, at least I witnessed the vastness of Xinjiang with my own eyes.

Although Beijing time is unified in Xinjiang, there is actually a two-hour time difference with the mainland. This season, it is dark at eight o'clock in the morning and at eight o'clock in the evening. Children go to school and leave school two hours later than mainland schools.

what I didn't expect was that I had to get used to jet lag before I went abroad.

at the same time, I also feel the economic depression in this land. In the urban area, there are many closed commercial pavements with notices of subletting and transfer. In the few scenic spots that can be accessed, there are no other tourists except a group of tourists from Wuhan. Business stalls in tourist attractions are idle, and a large number of shuttle buses in the parking lot of scenic spots stop.

The only thing that makes us happy is that the little brother of the tour guide in Xinjiang arranged this time is not bad. The descendant of Xinjiang Construction Corps, a young man born after 1985, is meticulous in his work and sincere in his attitude. Obviously, he has done enough homework to lead the team. He introduced the tourist destinations that we couldn't reach this time in detail without losing humor on the tourist bus, and by the way, he introduced how these three generations, from his grandfather, his father to himself, blossomed in Xinjiang. In fact, past lives of Xinjiang Construction Corps was introduced in detail from the side.

In fact, from my grandfather who took root in the barren land in the northwest border with Xinjiang Construction Corps after the founding of the People's Republic of China to his father (the second generation of the Agricultural Reclamation Corps) after the 196s, and then to himself, he went to the mainland to study at the beginning of the 21st century, and then made his own way to many places in the mainland to struggle hard. After many years of wandering around, he returned to Xinjiang for development. The ups and downs of this family's fate under the background of the great era are itself a book with complete plot, depth and worth watching.

this is also the place where I can feel the most affection for a group of mainland tourists coming from afar.

Perhaps this is the biggest gain of my trip to Xinjiang!

Before I left Xinjiang, I still felt that this trip across Qian Shan was cheated and disappointed. I gradually felt relieved after boarding the plane home. After all, in recent years, affected by the epidemic, tourism all over the country is not easy. According to the tour guide, he lost his job after the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in 22. Due to his livelihood, he had to take short-term jobs everywhere to earn living expenses. Last year, tourism in Xinjiang improved slightly. However, from November last year to the end of March this year, there was no delegation to travel to Xinjiang. We are the first group to travel to Xinjiang this year.

I can see that his efforts deserve his luck. Although I was wronged at home for five months, I came out to work again. I can understand that as a man who is the pillar of the family, there are old and young people in the world. If he is unemployed for a time and has no income, how much psychological pressure there is.

The tour guide is not only good in professional quality, but also careless in speaking and doing things. Knowing that everyone was politely covering up their disappointment in this trip to Xinjiang, he said shrewdly, "I'll try my best to help you find food to make up for the beautiful scenery that I didn't see this time, just as a trip to Xinjiang!" Welcome everyone to come to Xinjiang to see the beautiful scenery and enjoy food at the right time in the future! "

what are we talking about? Although we can't always blame the lack of hard work and unsatisfactory work on the epidemic, the epidemic has really hit many industries and many enterprises in flight.

Pray for an early and comprehensive victory in this COVID-19 epidemic struggle, which lasted for the third year; It is hoped that the epidemic prevention and control under the support of big data will be more accurate and effective, and the impact on social economy and people's lives will be minimized; We are expected to get out of the epidemic haze as soon as possible and embrace the spring flowers.