Trip to Qinghai (1) - Mangya Emerald Lake

 

Finally we arrived in Qinghai, a place with countless legends.

 

As soon as I open my eyes every day, the wheels start spinning.

Highways, provincial highways, rural roads, and unknown field roads with bumpy roads.

 

Along the way, there are snow-capped mountains, grasslands, lakes, forests, sea of ​​flowers, Danxia landform, Yadan landform, salt lake, Gobi, desert...

 

Nature has presented her most colorful and unpredictable paintings in front of our eyes without any hesitation or reservation during this journey.

 

Unfortunately, due to factors such as terrain, vehicle condition, and physical strength, only a few can enjoy it from a distance, and only a few can taste it briefly, but it still nourishes people's desolate, anxious, and empty hearts.

 

All the way from Xining to the northwest, across the Qaidam Basin, traveling more than 800 days, we arrived at Mangya City in the westernmost part of Qinghai.

 

The name "Mangya" comes from the Mongolian word "forehead". It is an inevitable place on the ancient Silk Road and a choke point for entering Xinjiang.

 

When I first heard the name, I thought it was an advertising stunt to attract tourists. It sounded fascinating and I wanted to find out.

 

Standing by the emerald lake, I was stunned by her beauty and was speechless for a long time.

 

Emerald Lake is a magnesium sulfate subtype salt lake with an area of ​​26 square kilometers. Due to the crystallization of various minerals containing potassium, magnesium, lithium and other metal salts, the entire lake surface appears in different colors of light green, emerald green and dark blue.

 

The wind was very strong by the lake, and layers of clouds covered the previously blue sky, leaving only a gray sky of varying shades, as if it had been dyed with light ink, natural, smooth, and freehand.

 

From the end of the gray sky, the sky and the water surface show the ultimate contrast. A line of clear water cuts across the horizon. From far to near, from deep to shallow, it successively presents deep emerald, turquoise, light green, dark blue...

 

Along with the water surface of different shades, the angle of the sunlight changes alternately. Finally, a strip of milky blue with a width of more than ten feet is wrapped with crystallized and semi-crystalline snow-white salt flowers, stretching to the dark brown shore.

 

Completely crystallized lake salt precipitates in the soil, forming a mixture of salt and soil, like ice, snow, or suspended waves, as if standing on the frozen Songhua River in late winter, but there is no biting cold.

 

Just like the seasons passing by, summer goes and winter comes.

 

The waves on the water surface with extremely high salt content seem a little sticky, and the blue-green lake water seems to be mixed with milk. The blue is icy and the green is crystal clear.

 

On the sparkling water, in the distance, several off-road vehicles were slowly driving along the water bank toward the depths. The reflections of the vehicles were reflected on the lake. There was no sound of the engine, but they were just moving slowly, like boats on the water. There must be more bizarre scenery in the center of the lake. The combination of this pristine salt lake and modern off-road vehicles looks like the cover of a travel magazine.

 

This salt lake has been amazing for thousands of years, and no one cares about it. Suddenly it is exposed to the world at this time, and it has become a holy place for countless travel enthusiasts. The originally barren salt-alkali land is flooded with people.

 

Red gauze scarf, green shawl, wide-brimmed sunglasses, parasol, flashing mobile phone, laughter...

 

Emerald Lake opened her beautiful blue eyes and looked quietly at the noisy and happy people around her. Compared to this thousand-year-old salt lake, human beings are just passing by.