Yanche Gully

Yanche Gully

Yanche Gully is a dried-up riverbed that cuts through the Que'ertage Mountains. It earned its name due to the high salt content in the water flowing through the gully. Yanche Gully was also part of the ancient Silk Road, serving as a strategic passage where the ancient Kingdom of Kucha connected to the Kingdom of Guimo. Along the way, visitors can see several fort ruins built during the Han and Tang dynasties, serving as historical testimonies to the merchants, soldiers, and Buddhists who once traversed the Silk Road.

As early as 400 million years ago, this area was part of the Indian Ocean. Due to the rise of the Himalayas, which blocked the connection between the Tarim Basin and the Indian Ocean, the seawater gradually evaporated, leaving behind vast amounts of salt and alkali — a testament to the Tarim Basin’s longing for the sea. Most of these salts form crystals, some hexagonal like crystals, others rectangular like icicles. Some resemble old men, some look like animals, some are oddly shaped like white flowers, and some are as pure as fine jade...

Upon first entering the mouth of Yanche Gully, if you don’t look carefully, you might not notice anything particularly magical — it just seems like a fold in a hill, neither high nor deep, nor especially striking. A thin stream, no wider than a willow leaf, flows silently into the fold, nothing out of the ordinary. But the deeper you go into the gully, the deeper and wider it becomes, and the hills on both sides grow taller. The hillsides are covered in bright white, as if blanketed by a sudden snowfall. In fact, these white substances are salt crystals. These oddly shaped salt flowers are treasures for photography enthusiasts and rock collectors, who come here to gather these natural works of art.

The massive red, brown, and gray mountain formations on both sides of Yanche Gully have been shaped over hundreds of millions of years by wind erosion, rain, and floods, forming crisscrossing ridges and grooves in an orderly layered pattern. On the way to the Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves, you’ll pass through the uniquely shaped landscape of Yanche Gully. The Yardang landforms have created bizarre terrains, including towering “pyramid” clusters, a remarkably lifelike “Potala Palace,” and dreamlike, ethereal “fairy mountains.” The shapes are vivid and realistic, evoking a sense of wonder at nature’s master craftsmanship. Especially when the setting sun casts slanted rays or morning light reflects off the mountains, looking into the distance, it’s easy to feel as though you’re not at Flaming Mountains — yet somehow even more spectacular.

Four or five camels come into view. Upon closer inspection, these earthy-colored giants surprisingly have no reins around their necks, nor any signs of being tethered. They show no fear of visitors, standing or lying down leisurely, watching the passing vehicles and tourists. Could there be wild camels in southern Xinjiang? “No,” the locals tell us. These camels were originally domesticated, but due to improved living conditions of the herders or the camels growing too old, they were released into the wild. Unexpectedly, these camels adapted to the environment, multiplied into four or five small herds, each with four or five members, becoming another unique sight in Yanche Gully.

Along the riverbank, people are often seen poking around in the water with sticks or long-handled shovels, which raises curiosity. It turns out that in the 1950s, a bank once transported a cartload of gold, silver, and coins from Hotan and Kashgar through this area. Suddenly, a flood struck, overturning the cart and sending 1,200 taels of gold and silver into the river, unrecoverable. Though the news was suppressed at the time, the occasional retrieval of gold and silver coins from the riverbed continues to inspire those hoping to strike it rich. Even today, some still dream of finding hidden treasure, so on rest days, the area naturally attracts more visitors.

A local legend also circulates in Yanche Gully: by the river lies a white lump of clay that, from a distance, resembles a small elephant standing at the foot of the mountain. Its body appears to be pressed beneath the great mountain, struggling to breathe, and it has managed to push its front half out, barely lifting its head and dipping its trunk into Yanche Gully to sip the salty water. It is said that in ancient times, elephants were abundant in the Kuqa region, and one elephant king became an evil spirit, leading the herd to rest in the Yanche Gully area by day and ravage crops and harm civilians by night, bringing disaster to the region. The Kingdom of Kucha was powerless against them. When the monk Xuanzang passed through here on his journey west, Sun Wukong, after a fierce battle, subdued the elephants. The white salt deposits scattered across Yanche Gully are said to be the flakes of skin shed by the elephants during the battle.