Sunday, June 08, 2008

TianChi (Heavenly Lake)

Our first stop for the day in Urumqi for the Silk Road Tour in XinJiang Province is TianChi (天池) or Heavenly Lake, formerly known as YaoChi. I won't write long and will let the picture do the talking. Since a picture worths a thousand words :)
Taking the cable car ride up. Up up up....

Scenic view of pine trees taken from the cable car.

Finally we reached our destination. The breathtaking Heavenly Lake in Tianshan Mountain, which lies 1980 meters above sea level.

YES !! The snow-capped peaks. Geeee, I don't have to visit Fuji Mountain in Japan for the snow capped mountain liao ;)
And we also took a short tour in the Heavenly Lake ~ half an hour ferry ride.

Pavillion on the mountain

Another shot of the blue sky, crystal clear blue water and the snow capped mountain from the ferry.

It's time to bid farewell to this scenic lake and mountain, which was listed as UNESCO world heritage site in 1990.

Have Mercy on the Green Grass :)

Haha, I cannot resist but to take another shot before I cabut :P

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome images, and nice view.

L B said...

My imagination ran wild, and I could see the Monkey King leaping from mountain peak to mountain peak with his magic pole.. and hordes of immortal soldiers chasing after him from the clouds.

Selba said...

Wow.... beautiful!!! The weather looks so nice and also the view :)

kyh said...

chevliu!!! very very beautiful and breathtaking! like switzerland!!! i've been dreaming of going to xinjiang.... u know, the unique culture of the uighurs, central asians, muslims etc... and desert with double-hump camels! woooohhh!!! cant wait for ur next series!

Chen said...

kurukure,
Thanks :)

LB,
Hehehee, and I passed by the Flaming Mountain in Turpan too ~ the famous site in the Journey to the West series ;)

Selba,
Yeah, the weather in Urumqi is cool and I love it. Where else the weather in the subsequent site of the tour is hot and dry.

kyh,
The Silk Road tour is kinda exotic and I love it, although tiring... And the locals in Urumqi looks like those Middle East or Pakistani folks, but they speak Chinese. Hehehhee :D

rainbow angeles said...

Heavenly Lake.. the place i'm supposed to stay ah? :p

hou leng ah!!

narrowband sent me an MMS of Mt. Fuji.. also hou leng... aihhh.. today got so many Yapunese things geh!! Nihon e ikitai desu!!! (wanna go nippon) :p

Chen said...

R Angeles,
Hehehe, pannainya ni Angeles.
Yeah loh, the heavenly place is for u wan..

Might be hoh, can also ask LB to build the HKF Resort there :P

Err.. Narrowband now in Jepun ah? :)

This Tianshan mountain looks like Jepun mt, feels like Jepun mt but it's not Jepun Mt mah. If not we can eat sushi there liao :P

Super duper blur with yr jepun kia words, luckily got translation :P

Jason Chan said...

snow capped peaks + pine trees... so salem-high-country-feel, Nice!
Yeaoh, sekejap sejuk, sekejap panas, thank God you don get sick!

Mediviron UOA Clinic said...

don't kill any grass please!

Anonymous said...

Very very nice Heavenly Lake in Tianshan Mountain...

I must go one day !!

Chen said...

jason,
yeah, easy to fall sick especially in the hot & dry weather. Have to consume lotsa water at night time. I drank more than a liter of water every night :)

Can feel my throat extremely dry in the early morning.. I popped in Actifed when i feel like about to get URTI :)

chen,
I did heed the advice and have mercy at the grass :P

keeyit,
It's a nice place to visit, but just that it's located too far away.

moz monster said...

Man ... I thought you were only eating sand on your holiday !

Turns out there's some nice spring water to wash down the sand with !!!

*runs for cover before Chen sends sand to piak me ..*

Pink Cotton said...

WOW!!!

so blue the lake...
so beautiful...
so breathtaking!...

hee when u told me u went on silk road tour...i had to go wiki it 'x'

mistipurple said...

how you feel when you were there? i mean, mentally. like freedom bird? :p

Chen said...

moz,
I will piak u with the colourful sand from Gobi Dessert :)

There's Balikun Green Field in XinJiang too.. Green field with sheeps, cows and horses :)

pink cotton,
Too bad no pink colour? :P

Piak u for not knowing Silk Road.
But at least now u know what is it about liao, after wiki-ing it :)

misti,
Feel very syiok...
Dunno how to describe leh
But I think u can understand what I meant lah :P

day-dreamer said...

I really hope I have the chance to go see for myself the wonderful sceneries of China before they're all gone. >.<

Anonymous said...

Very nice lake and the ice cap mountain looks so nice
:)

TZ said...

Silk Road is always the place i wanted to go... my parents been there before... Anyway, i like the last shot... it's an awesome shot. :->

Kok said...

chev,
Next time you wanna go on trip, can ajak me along? This place is so BEAUTIFUL loh! Really HEAVENLY!!!

yenjai.net said...

Beautiful scenery

Anonymous said...

wahhh.. so beautiful! blue sea blue sky. nice pictures!!

Anonymous said...

Very beautiful place and nice captures! Looks like it was great fun!

Alexander
Alex's World! - http://www.kakinan.com/alex

Doreen said...

Beautiful beautiful! Stunningly beautiful! *quickly note down TianChi in must-visit list*

Wyn said...

wah...so nice ler...

so relaxing...issit expensive to go there?

Chen said...

day dreamer,
There are scenic view in almost every corner in China. Do pay China a visit. This is my 4th time visiting China, but visiting different places lah :)

zeroimpact,
serene eye soothing view.
Can temporary forget all the stress and unhappy events there :)

TZ,
Silk Road is not a route that everyone wants to go, cos it is associated with "suffering". Hope u will find time to visit the place some time in the future, but don't go during winter time as the place get dark very fast, around 5 pm. Hence less time for sight seeing. At these period of time, the sky is still bright up to 10 pm :)

Chen said...

kok,
Of course can, but provided if u r free lah. Btw, I will be in Kuching end of this month for just few days. Bought the tickets back home end of last year during the AA promo :)

yenjai,
Most places in our motherland China is blessed with scenic and serene view. When u wanna pay China a visit?

Too bad now we cannot visit Jiuzhaigou already. I visited that place and Sichuan in early 2006:)

ehon,
Can just sit down and enjoy the scneries for hours and hours.. But there are lotsa visitors there too also lah :P

Chen said...

alex,
Yeah, its fun except have to suffer from long hours bus ride on the bumpy road in the dessert subsequently :)

doreen,
Nice place but just that the place is too far away as it is located in the inner China.. 5.5 hours flight from Guangzhou to Urumqi and 2 or 3 hours bus ride from Urumqi to reach the place :)

wyn,
I followed tour and the price inclusive of flight tickets (2 international flights and 3 domestic flights), accomodation at 4-star hotels, transportation, entrance tickets and food are 5k plus per person for 10 days tour.

may said...

very the heaven, that lake. so tranquil-looking... *toes grass*

Najib Ariyan Ali Basha said...

Chen.. I was plan to go there tahun 2010.... boleh cadangkan I tak travel agen yg bagus utk I pegi and estimate berapa banyak duit yg I kena sediakan???

Najib Ariyan Ali Basha said...

can I contact u?? my email is ysukami05@yahoo.com

I am going to Penang this Wednesday... can we see each other

Chen said...

may,
Really can roll on the grass or fatt ngau tau over there...
And definitely won't see any ghosts :P

Hahahaa...

beruang madu,
For this tour, I joined the local tour company in Penang called Lye Peng. The fare I paid was RM 5300+ inclusive of flight tickets, 4 star accodomation in various hotels, entrance tickets, transportation and food. The tour fare is cheaper, slightly less than RM5k if joined earlier as there are discounts for early birds. I joined the tour quite late.

I exchanged around RM 1000 for spending. RM 1 is approximately RMB 2. Things there are quite cheap, but u definitely need to bargain to get a good offer :)

If u wanna took the Silk Road, it is recommended to go during this period of time as the day time is long. The sun only goes down at 10 pm, hence can have ample time for sight seeing and shopping or whatever lah activities u wanna do. If u travel later in the year during winter time, the day time is short. The sky gets dark around 5 pm and less time for sight seeing, which is not worthy lah..

Sure, I have sent an email to u :)

Anonymous said...

Looks like I found this place after all! Read about it sometime ago and made mental note to include in must-visit list...then forgot its name. Heavenly Lake it is!

Nice shots. Think I'm going to buy a wide-angle lens before I go :)

Chen said...

fibrate,
Hehehe, cute lah ...
Can forget the name wan :P

Might be u can trade in your Sigma 18-200mm for the one with OS? But it's more bulky and more heavy lah..
The len is 200+ gm heavier than the one without OS..

Redsponge said...

wow.....beautifullllll

Chen said...

red sponge,
God's creation is indeed awesome :)

Najib Ariyan Ali Basha said...

wow... thanks Chen... thats really cheap... i will take your advise