Day 372: The Khans and the Alps

Burqin – Kanas, China

Kanas is a 24km narrow lake located in the alpine mountain of Xinjiang. Although it’s also a mountain range with pine trees, the scenery is entirely different from Huangshan. The feel is totally European. Kanas is deemed a world heritage national park.

A part of China, Kanas borders Mongolia on its east, Russia on its north and Kazakstan on its west. This leads to a mixture of interesting group of ethnic groups, amongst whom are the Tuva. There are only 2,500 Tuva descendants and 700 of them live in the Tuva village in Kanas. They are a subculture of the Mongols and they claim to be the direct descendants of Genghis Khan.

June to August is the high season of Kanas’s tourism. It is also the worst time to visit. Crowds are everywhere. Of course I should have known and gotten used to this and stop bitching. But it blew my mind every time.

After being led around by our guide to take a boat ride on the lake and visit a Tuva’s house, we were granted free time in the park. I wandered off track then off to a small quiet hill, found myself a shade under the tree and went on to read a novel until I fell asleep for an hour.

Energized, I made my way back to the crowds and fought my way down the mountain on the numerous shuttle buses, stopping by some viewpoints for photo session. The pictures didn’t turn out good since the sun wasn’t in my favour.