The Big Dragon Pond in Kuqa

Deep in the Tianshan Mountains, 120 kilometres north of Kuqa, lie two alpine lakes commonly known as the Big Dragon Pond and the Little Dragon Pond, featuring breathtaking scenery.

The Big Dragon Pond covers a water area of about 2 square kilometres, surrounded by mountains capped with perpetual snow. Snow lotus, a precious Chinese medicinal herb, grows above the snow line. At the foot of the mountains stand lush firs and cypresses amid carpet-like green grass, dotted with yurts of herdsmen and flocks of cattle and sheep. Occasionally you may spot snow cocks, argali sheep and snow leopards.

The famous Tianshan Highway winds along the lake like a huge black python toward the Tielimaiti Daban Pass at an altitude of 3,700 metres deep in the mountains. After passing through China’s longest highway tunnel and driving another 70 kilometres, you will reach the Bayanbulak Grassland with abundant water and grass and countless livestock.

Xuanzang, the eminent monk of the Tang Dynasty who journeyed west to India for Buddhist scriptures, once passed by the Big Dragon Pond. He left a vivid account of this lake in his work Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty.