Tianchi Lake in Xinjiang spotlights western China’s nature tourism
The Urumqi-area region is being promoted through Tianshan scenery, even as Xinjiang and the Uighur remain under scrutiny.
Tianchi Lake in the Tianshan Mountains, about 110 kilometers from Urumqi, is again drawing attention as a nature-tourism destination in Xinjiang, western China. The lake, nicknamed the “Heavenly Lake,” sits in Bogda Mountain Valley and is known for its blue-green water amid forests and mountains. Xinjiang covers 1.66 million square kilometers, nearly one-sixth of China’s land area, with scenery that includes snow-capped mountains, deserts, grasslands and lakes. To the north are the Altai Mountains and the Junggar Basin, while the south stretches to the Kunlun Mountains and the Tarim Basin, home to the Taklamakan Desert. Behind the landscape promotion, Xinjiang remains under international scrutiny over treatment of the Uighur, which Beijing denies.