Tianshan Tianchi Lake, Xinjiang Uygur, China

5Bob B 5:00 PM Feb 27, 2020

Lovely place to relax
While a popular "grab a photo" site with 1000s of daily visitors, it is so much more. Plan to have time to take the boat ride or even better, a hike off into the forest surrounding the lake. It is so peaceful, really Heavenly! take your preferred snacks and beverages with you on the hike for a picnic. There are plenty of places to eat at the top by the bus stop and above. Also at the bottom of of the bus route--we had a delightful meal under the grape leaves at one of dozens of small family spots.

4Edgar K 5:00 PM Oct 1, 2015

Practical advice for Tian Chi
We recently went to Tian Chi (Tuesday 22nd Sep 2015) and wanted to post some information about our experience. Firstly, we read plenty of reviews online and were confused by the polarity of opinions about Tian Chi. People either loved it or hated it! Overall we had a great time, and I will try to make some recommendations on how to make it an experience to remember. In summary: - Firstly, the lake is SPECTACULAR. It is surrounded by snow-capped peaks and set in a lush forest. The scenery is stunning. - This was the most enjoyable thing we did while staying in Urumqi. - Go on a weekday. We went on a Tuesday and although there were a fair few tourists there, there were not enough so as to detract from the experience. - Stay overnight in a Yurt. As others have mentioned, the vast majority of people do not stay the night and the busy period is only from around 11am to 4pm. Don't worry about missing out on a yurt. More on this below. - Bring warm clothes. It gets very chilly at night. - Bring earplugs if you take a direct tourist bus from the people's park. Our day began at the north entrance to the People's Park. As the guidebooks mention, it is easy to find and a ticket seller will find you as soon as you set foot near the park (literally!). The tickets were ¥60 each and the bus left fairly quickly. I would recommend eating before you leave or taking something to eat on the bus. There was only one shop near the park that was selling dumplings, although they were tasty. As others have written, don't expect to get a quiet ride to the park. The 'tour guide' yabbered loudly over the bus PA for the ENTIRE THREE HOURS. Admittedly we don't speak Chinese, but it may have been worse had it been in English. The bus stopped once for the restroom/snacks, and once at a shop to try to get you buy stuff. After this, we stopped at the Tian Chi main gate and we escaped from the tour group. The main gate is a large building where you can buy tickets and go through security. The entrance fee was ¥215 pp, which we thought was very steep. This includes return transportation from the main gate to a parking lot ~700m from the lake. After you go through security, you get straight on a bus which takes you to an (unnecessary) drop-off where you are encouraged to visit a Kazakh "cultural village" for a fee of ¥50pp. We didn't bother with this and you can take a left turn and follow the path to the next bus that will take you to the carpark near the lake. The next bus ride will take you to 2000m above sea level and is really spectacular. If you can, get a window seat on the right side of the bus for the best views. When you get off, there will be some people offering yurts, etc. We would recommend that you avoid negotiating here (explanation later) and just walk up to the lake (approx 10 mins). A German guy we met on the bus was approached by a yurt seller and handed a phone and Rashit (the person cited in the guidebook and online) was on the other end. He was interested in looking at the yurt and Rashit told him to take the path to the right around the lake said that he would send his son to meet us. This is where we went a little wrong. When you get to the lake, you can either: - Head to the left and follow the path around the lake (it eventually leads to a monastery) - Head to the right around the lake - Take the path that leads UP the hill away from the lake (this is where you will find ALL the yurts) We took the path to the right around the lake and walked for about an 1/2 an hour with our heavy packs looking for yurts, to find that we should have taken the path up the hill. We never ran into Rashit's son and we were unable to find him when we arrived at the 'yurt village'. We walked around and spoke to a couple of yurt owners and found one with a great view of the lake. The price was ¥100pp per night including meals which we thought was reasonable (we could have negotiated buy we were happy with the price). The three of us decided to stay in the same yurt, the German guy for one night and us for two nights. Some comments about the yurts: - The experience was awesome. We would highly recommend it. - It gets cold. Bring warm clothes. - Don't expect a toilet. You will need to find a tree near the yurt. THEN... We were all talking in the yurt at about 9:30pm, getting ready for bed when the yurt owner's son came into the yurt with a couple of other young guys and handed me a phone. The guy on the other end (who I believe was Rashit) said "they want to tell you that you can't stay and have to leave". I was pretty surprised as it was completely unexpected (and already dark!) and I asked him "why" he said that he didn't know so I replied "well can you please find out!" I handed back the phone, they spoke for a few seconds and left, not to return. The next morning, the yurt owner apologetically told us that he got in trouble with the police and we had to leave. He refunded the money for the second night. He also mentioned that none of the yurts were allowed to host foreigners. This is one explanation - another is that Rashit is trying to maintain a monopoly on foreigners in the park and was annoyed that we had stayed at another yurt. We aren't to know. Anyway, we were satisfied with our one night and decided to head back to Urumqi. If we had stayed for another night, we would have sought to do some more walking/hiking around the area. On the way back, we wanted to walk back to the bus stop near the "cultural village" to take in the scenery at a slower pace. We saw a trail on the map that began just slightly down from where the bus drops you off near the lake. This trail was unfortunately closed. There was possibly another path down that leaves from the lake, but we decided to take the bus down. The bus didn't stop at the cultural village (I assume that other buses depart from here for people who walk down) and went straight to the main gate. We were very keen to not take another tour bus back to people's park, and were approached by a guy with a minivan as soon as we walked through the exit. He took us (and a number of others) to the bus station at a town called Fukan (I think) for ¥5 each. We were dropped off outside the long distance bus station and got straight into another bus going to Urumqi for ¥15. We arrived at a bus station out of town (we don't really know where it was) and managed to catch a local bus back to Hongshan for ¥1. I imagine that you could do this in reverse if you wanted to save money, however you would need to know what you were doing. Well I seem to have written an essay. I hope it comes in useful!!