Departing from Zhengzhou, I witnessed the blue hour at Sailimu Lake

Although I’m already back at my desk, my mind and thoughts are still at Sailimu Lake 🤣 Taking advantage of the clear memory, I’m quickly recording my first trip to Xinjiang~ Xinjiang Day 1: Landed at Yining Airport on Thursday noon. After picking up the car, I casually strolled around Yining city in the afternoon. Winter in Yining is indeed the off-season; there were hardly any people on Liuxing Street during the day. Kazanqi is just a cluster of blue houses, then I went to the Ili River to watch the sunset (P2), which felt quite ordinary. In the evening, I had a casual meal at Langge Courtyard on Liuxing Street. Only the stir-fried cabbage with naan was pretty good; the rest was so-so... Xinjiang Day 2: Early Friday morning, we drove two hours from Yining straight to Sailimu Lake, entering from the east gate and touring clockwise. Here is our itinerary: 1️⃣ Pine Tree Head: The first spot we arrived at was Pine Tree Head. Watching the sunrise here was just okay. (P1 first row and P3) 2️⃣ Popular S Bend: The S Bend is indeed great for sunrise. This was also the spot where we spent the most time taking photos, though the lighting changes a lot at different times. (P1 middle row, P4-5) 3️⃣ Lighthouse Check-in Point: The lighthouse is also a great photo spot. (P6) 4️⃣ Kele Yongzhu: At Kele Yongzhu, we saw swans (P7). The photographer took some of the best photos of my life here (P8)! I’m very satisfied! After playing at Kele Yongzhu, more than 3/5 of the day had passed. Since I already got my best photos, I didn’t have much energy left, so the second half of the trip was more of a quick tour. 5️⃣ Dianjiangtai: Dianjiangtai has quite a few steps, and the view from the top is very open (P9). Maybe the lighting wasn’t good when we arrived, so there wasn’t much worth photographing. 6️⃣ Western Quiet Sea: We made a few brief stops between Dianjiangtai and Western Quiet Sea, but didn’t take many photos. There’s a Sailimu Lake stone monument at Western Quiet Sea, very close to the lake with big waves. (P10) 7️⃣ Moon Bay: Had dinner at Moon Bay, which tasted pretty good but was a bit pricey. The sunset at Moon Bay wasn’t the pink sky and pink snowy mountain I wanted; instead, I saw a bit of pink sky across from the restaurant (P11). 8️⃣ Ten-Mile Long Embankment: Because of my obsession with the sunset, after dinner at Moon Bay, we went back counterclockwise near the Ten-Mile Long Embankment (P12). It was quite beautiful, but still not the feeling I wanted. After discussing with my partner, we decided not to be so obsessed with sunrise and sunset, so we planned to stay overnight in Wenquan County. The drive from Sailimu Lake to Wenquan County at night includes a mountain road, but it’s all national and provincial roads. However, one section had heavy fog with very low visibility! After thinking it over at night, I still felt unsatisfied, so early the next day I returned to Sailimu Lake again. Entered from the east gate and went straight to Kele Yongzhu, which thankfully did not disappoint me (P1 third row). Thus, the Sailimu Lake trip was perfectly concluded!