Heavenly lake

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On the way here Aziza had a small argument with a car in heavy traffic coming out of Urumqui which resulted in quite a lot of shouting but no action. Aziza is fine.

At the entrance to heavenly lake the Chinese have built infrastructure similar to a theme park. There is a huge car park and visitor reception centre. There is a transport network consisting of posh buses - two journeys, followed by small electric bus and more prosaically to finish a pick up truck with sheep in the back provided by the yurt owner. The lake is very popular with Chinese tourists, but they all come on day trips and stay in the small area between the tourist facilities and the yellow temple. The afternoon we arrived there was enough time for me to explore the waterfall, boat quay and the red temple. I saw two differentbridal couples in full bridal attire having official photos against the background of the lake. Many of the female tourists came in high heels and fancy skirts and some of the men wore cowboy hats. The theme park atmosphere was enhanced by the cut off plastic logs which served as rubbish bins or relayed piped music. There were notices everywhere. One of my favourites was "don't faze the grasses".

In the full day at the lake I discovered that all those tourists do not venture far. Despite all the safety notices the path wasfalling to pieces in some sections further from the facilities. On my full circuit of the lake I saw no one up to the yellow temple apart from one man at the far end of the lake. There were just a few people on a steep climb up to a pagoda fairly close to the yellow temple.

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