Chaka Salt Lake: plenty photos to take!

After what we could call our lake-tourism warm-up (Qinghai Lake) the day before, it was time for the first significant stop on our big-loop route around inner China – Chaka Salt Lake.

It’s not the largest salt lake in the world, with an area of “only” about 100km² – which is around a hundred times smaller than, for example, Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni (~10,000km²). However, it has its own unique charm: the Chinese have turned this “simple salt lake” into a major tourist attraction (fancy that?!), where you can easily spend an entire day (in the right season). The secret is simple: various installations have been set up across a significant portion of the lake that are practically begging to be photographed and shared on Instagram TikTok. These installations are a huge hit especially with girls – who bring bright (most often red) outfits specially for the occasion:

The photo installations here are plentiful and incredibly diverse:

In short, it’s a perfect place for taking photos!

The walking area is quite extensive, and to speed up movement and manage the flow of tourists small trains run along the embankment:

Again, the installations here are incredibly varied – limited only by the imagination of the designers:

Red over-boots (visible on some tourists in the photos) are available for rent:

Handrails for descending into the walking zones:

Or you can also just walk along the boardwalks without stepping into the salty water:

The photo themes are often “heartfelt”:

In other places – remnants of old salt-mining infrastructure:

Salt extraction has been moved to one side, and this area has been repurposed for tourism. But some of the old equipment has been left behind:

And various other installations on all sorts of themes:

Piano theme (more on it, as promised earlier, later on) ->

Alas, the water level of the lake was too high for walking…

We had to settle for the dry routes:

But at least we had the drone:

Surprisingly, use of drones was not only allowed in many tourist spots but actively encouraged. We were even invited to rent a drone – with an operator! (We had our own expert operator, thank you:) If you look closely, it’s obvious that some TikTok installations are designed specifically for aerial shots. Accordingly, the sky here was abuzz with drones! ->

All righty. Aerial Chaka – done. Now for some ~terra-firma Chaka…

Back at the entrance to the tourist zone, guests are greeted by this here futuristic police vehicle:

Here’s a bit of a rarity: a map that’s quite accurate! In touristy China, you normally have to make do with “approximate” walking routes, which often make it unclear both where and how far you’ll need to walk!…

Caka? But it’s pronounced Chaka. Maybe it’s Italian transcription? :)

Everyone’s invited to board these cute little trains and head further toward the lake:

Besides the main train station there are three more stops ahead – and you can get off at any of them:

Very nice! ->

It amused me that the “locomotive” seems to be electric, but the tender behind it, judging by the sound, is a diesel generator producing the electricity! Green technology? You decide ) ->

If you prefer, you can walk in parallel with the trains, which is what we did:

And the water here is reeaally salty:

A few more pics:

Sunset:

The morning of the second day was a bit gray – thin but annoying clouds filled the sky:

The lake is also called the “Mirror of the Sky”, and for good reason:

What’s this? I never figured it out…

This white substance on the path is pure salt:

But it was already getting dark – time to wrap things up…

Another “main course” – this sculpture park:

It looks quite nice:

The internet claims that all the installations are made of salt (which would make sense). I didn’t lick them myself, but upon closer inspection I started having doubts…

Another thing: it rarely rains here, but it does happen. How can these salt structures withstand the rain? But never mind. It’s still interesting:

Genghis Khan:

Something clearly historical, but here we were walking without a guide:

In the evening, of course, everything is lit up, and the views become completely different:

A few more photos of Chaka Lake:

Woah… a digitized public restroom. The display shows available cubicles and various telemetry: temperature, humidity, H₂S concentration (!), and more:

At the very end – a comet in the sky! Yes – this was a lucky day )…

Then we drove almost 500km to our next overnight stop before further adventures. Yes, the distances “from one meditative tourism to the next” had become significant…

We stayed in Golmud – here. It’s a small city deep in the desert, but there are still plenty of places to spend the night…

Lions guard the hotel entrance…

The view out the window – and that’s it for today. Time to turn in – for tomorrow will be another long day…

The rest of the photos from our China-2024 trip are here.