Three Summer Resorts in Western China

The best time to travel Shangri-La is spring and summer, during which the temperature is moderate, and the scenery on the colorful meadow is tempting. While in autumn, the scenery is also wonderful. In 10-20 days after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the autumn becomes distinct. No matter where you are in the plateau, your eyes always brim with gorgeous autumn landscape. Due to the high altitude, the Shangri-La could snow even in August. Also for being surrounded by mountains and the complex terrain, in Shangri-La, the temperature difference in one day is great, called “Four Seasons a Day”. If you plan to visit Shangri-La, you’d better bring enough clothes. Especially after October, more winter coats are needed.

Located at Hulun Buir City of China Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Hulun Buir Grassland is named after HulunLake and BuirLake, and rank among the world three grasslands. Home to a pasture of 0.1 billion Mu (a Chinese measure unit and one mu equivalent to 666.667 square meters), a forest of over 0.2 billion mu, 500 lakes and 3,000 rivers, the endless Hulun Buir Grassland looks like a huge green carpet. When walking on it, you can get a wonderful feeling of softness. Here the green grass and blue sky are on the horizon, the flocks and herds chases each other, and the herd is singing when raising the whip. If you come to visit Hulun Buir Grassland, you can ride a horse to enjoy a trip in a sea of grass, take a local jigger wheel to travel around the lakes, go fishing in the lakes or go hunting in the forest.

In Hulun Buir Grassland, the special foods include Mongolia boiled lamb, mutton slices cooked in hot pot, sweet and sour pork, fried white mushroom, etc.

The wonderful Kanas Lake always reminds people of Milan Kundera’s well-known essay Life is Elsewhere. The green tourism specialist Edward Taylor once described the Kanas Lake, “She is the last one in the world without being explored. Her existence certifies the human’s nice habitat in the past. Most people who have seen her said that Kanas Lake looks like a colorful painting, with natural colors.

The word “Kanas” originated from Mongolian, and means beauty and mystery. Normally, it refers to the Kanas Lake or Kanas Nature Reserve established around the Kanas Lake. A notable scholar once praised Kanas as the unique one in Asia with Swaziland-like landscape. Besides, Kanas is also second to be reputed as dreamy Shangri-La after Zhongdian in Yunnan Province of China. Here people can admire snow-capped mountains, valleys, forest, flowers, lakes, meadow, etc at the same time.

An attractive feature for Kanas Lake is its different colors in different seasons and climates. Even between the morning and night in one day, it appears differently. In sunny days, sunshine, clouds and water vapor together create wonderful spots on the water surface of Kanas Lake. The lake color and spots change with the differences of the angel of the sunlight. Moreover, here the forest is also changeable that enhances the beauty of Kanas.

In local Kanas, the residents mainly feed on meat and milk products, and hardly eat vegetables. They planted tomato and loves to eat a potherb called “Bieke”, actually a kind of ginseng.