Starting to share from a trip to Thailand in 2019, Ha Hien (a young man born in 1997, living in Ho Chi Minh City) gradually fell in love with his passion for traveling . During the COVID-19 period, the 9X young man also built a TikTok channel with more than 100,000 followers and completely switched to creating content about travel.
This summer, Hien's trip to Xinjiang came by chance. Just because he had seen it once and was so surprised by the images of this place, Hien made a schedule, immediately looked for a travel companion to make the dreamy journey three months later.
Beauty that can't be taken off your eyes
Xinjiang, officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, covers an area of over 1.6 million square kilometers in northwestern China. “The landscape of Xinjiang is truly impressive, and it feels like you’ve been to several different countries. The terrain is very diverse, the air is fresh, and there are many nature reserves and grasslands with vast grass and trees,” Hien said.
During the 15-day summer journey in China, Hien and his friends spent nearly 10 days traveling across the roads of Xinjiang, admiring and immersing themselves in nature in Hemu village, Kanas reserve, Kalajun grassland, Salimu lake, Nalati grassland or Urho demon city.
Each destination has its own charm that makes anyone who visits it remember it forever. While Kanas is both poetic and majestic with the Altai Mountains, Hemu village preserves its peaceful beauty with traditional wooden houses. While Kalajun is surreally beautiful with its vast flower grasslands, Nalati "heavenly plateau" stretches endlessly. Salimu Lake "the last tear of the Atlantic" changes its color with the seasons, while Urho Devil Citadel brings the feeling of walking in a world full of mysterious stories from millions of years ago.
Among them, Nalati impressed Hien the most and made him decide to stay for 2 days to roam around the beautiful spots as well as to immerse himself in the nomadic life in the most natural way. Nalati's space is a vast grassland, surrounded by towering snow-capped mountains, green pine forests, babbling streams with colorful wildflowers that can only be seen in the summer.
This is also the trip where Hien took the most photos through the car window. Roadtrip to Ladakh (India) made him sleepy, but not in Xinjiang because the scenery here passed through the car window like vivid, dreamy movies that Hien could not take his eyes off. He shared: "I just sat in the car watching the outside world pass by so quickly but there was so much left inside."
Surprises on the road
Although he has traveled to many places in Asia, Hien has never experienced the nomadic life, so the trip to Xinjiang brought him many interesting "first time" memories. Only when he arrived in Xinjiang did the 9X Viet have dinner in a cozy tent, enjoying local specialties amidst the laughter of his companions. "The most memorable moment was when he had fun and danced with the generous locals under the sunset at 10pm. That was also one of the most beautiful memories I will never forget," Hien said.
Xinjiang people are very gentle and hospitable, they are extremely friendly and lovely. Especially the uncles and aunts selling groceries on the roadside, or the group's driver, those lovely people helped Hien's trip have more experiences and valuable, meaningful memories.
The weather in Xinjiang changes rapidly, some days are as hot as 40 degrees Celsius, some days are as cold as 3-4 degrees Celsius, so even though it is summer, tourists can experience many different types of weather. On the last day in Xinjiang, on the Duku Highway, it was a bright sunny morning, but halfway through the road, the sky darkened and it started to snow. Ha Hien was very surprised because he did not think it would snow in the middle of summer when a few days ago he was in a dry desert with temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius.
The scenery and people of Xinjiang truly surprise visitors as they change with each day of travel. Hien and his companions, despite having to sit in the car for nearly ten hours each day, did not feel tired, but were very excited. He said that Xinjiang is too vast and beautiful to visit just once, so he hopes to return in the fall to see the golden leaves covering everything.
