Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 4

Day4:

This was the day to explore the Kanas Nature Reserve more thoroughly for the whole day, we started in the morning but the whole reserve is more than 10000 sq km and too large to explore even in one month, so we started our visit with the three most famous bends of nine beautiful bends Kanas river took here, the names are dramatic (Sleeping Dragon Bay, Moon Bay and Fairy Bay), this area is very famous for it rich flora and fauna and only belt of Siberian Taiga forest in China is located here comprising Siberian larch, spruces, red pine, firs and birches. Pine we all know are evergreen trees and only here you would find even pine trees change their color in Autumn, something really worth watching. Kanas is a crescent shaped lake the main showpiece of this nature reserve fed by Altai glaciers and drained by Kanas River. Kanas means beautiful and mysterious place in Mongolians, a name the place really deserves. The pristine beauty of the lake and its lush forests, pure and fresh air and ever changing color of the lake and alpine forests and meadows shadowed by Altai peaks make it an inspirational sight. We enjoyed sometime near the lake in boat jetty and then took a nice walk along the Kanas river, it was really very refreshing and one of the ways to get away from madding crowd. We had a wonderful day through out and enjoyed it thoroughly, we gone back to Jiadengyu to our hotel to start our Southbound drive for almost next 10 days till we would reach Kunjerab Pass in the border with Pakistan (Pak Occupied Kashmir to be precise).

Sleeping Dragon Bay: