Already the last day of our trip? Unbelievable. Anyway, we're not done yet. First we have the trip to the heavenly lake. Already at the parking area we got the first hint, that this is really a tourist attraction in China.
A couple of minutes later we got the confirmation: everything is real chinese.
Only the VIPs are allowed to drive their cars to the lake, all the other have to take the cable car. The brand of the cable car is chinese and because of this there is a speaker at each mast playing lovely chinese hits.
The big sign that we are now in a
high altitude forest is right. The lake is on a height of around 2000m
above sea level. Without the other tourists we could really imagine
we're in Switzerland and not in China.
Everywhere tourists are going the professional photographers are not far. Original packed in the scarfs so they don't get tanned.....
Enough bla bla, here the pictures of the lake:
That's really heavenly, isn't it? And yes, we're still in China. Everywhere the small stone speakers with lovely music. And the sign that you should love the birds and beasts. Ok, if they say so, we'll do our best.
To show you the difficulty of taking pictures of the lake without people, here the view in the other direction:
Another tourist attraction are the typical kirgisic Yurts which are rented out for overnight stays. Most of the tourists are happy just to have a pick nick at the lake next to the Karaoke stage. If this is too low level there is also a nice and beautifully hotel available.....
Really nice is also the sign to honk the horn. Hey, there are turns in the road.
We hadn't had enough time to hike around the lake. This would have been really great because after 50 meters away from the main deck it's getting quite and lonely.
Taking the cable car down to the parking place we saw the service technician doing some maintenance. We better not ask about the maintenance level of the cable cars at all.
Down in the valley we found some real cows. One of the first we saw in China at all. It's really amazing how many beef is eaten here and how you hardly can find the cows.
At the airport we got two times surprised. One was the double cabin at the toilet. Hmmm, why not. A bit weired but ok. The other one was the blinking red light at the luggage counter where we checked in our luggage. The friendly security guy opened the trolley and put out Stephan's knife and went away. What happens now? Stephan was yelling and running behind the guy and took back his knife. The security guard told us (ok, our guide was translating) that it's not allowed to take any knifes out of Xinjiang province. Sorry, say again? Not allowed? Stephan didn't believe it. He wanted to confiscate the knife, Stephan wanted to take it with him. After some arguments the guards said, that then he had to call the police. Fine with Stephan, we have plenty of time.
When the police arrived the same scene like before: The police man took the knife, looked at it, nodded, turned around and walked away. Deja vu. Again yelling, again taking back the knife, again translation that it's not allowed and that he is confiscating the knife. No way, where is it written, no where in the Airport shows a sign that it's not allowed. Well in this case we need to go to the police station. Fine with Stephan, we have plenty of time.
In the airport police station the officer was really nice. He explained the changed law, that it's really not allowed to take out any knifes of Xinjiang province. not by plane, not by train, not by bus, car, walking, donkey car, it's just not allowed. I can give the knife away to somebody or he has to confiscate it but offering some paper.
To make a long story short: we gave the knife to our guide as a gift and Stephan was really pissed. Quite sure that the travel agency will have some troubles when were back.
Finally at the gate there was the wrong flight number with the wrong destination, we got a food poisoning in the plane (Shanghai airlines by the way) and we got home after 2am in the morning, but this is really another story.......
Tourists...
...everywhere......
