Aletai

Aletai (阿勒泰; Ālètài; also known as Altay and Altai City) is a city in Xinjiang Province of China. Go 100 km or so in any direction except south and you hit a border: Mongolia to the east, Russia to the north, Kazakhstan to the west.

Understand

Aletai is a county-level city and capital of Altai region. It is in the western part of Altai Krai, the southern foothills of Altai Mountains, at the northern edge of Junggar Basin. Its population is about 200,000 (2020). Altai is a Turkic word meaning "Golden Mountain", which is named for the gold deposits in the mountains. Altai City was in ancient times a herding place for ethnic minorities in China. Successive central governments have set up administrative organs here since the Western Han Dynasty. The city is best known for its skiing, and it has won dozens of awards related to winter sports from the Chinese government.

Get in

Aletai
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D       0     3 −10       0     −6 −17       0     3 −10       0     3 −10       17     3 −10       17     26 12       17     26 12       25     26 12       0     20 7       0     20 7       0     6 3       0     −8 −6 Average max. and min. temperatures in °C Precipitation+Snow totals in mm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Meteorological_Administration
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D       0     37 14       0     21 1       0     37 14       0     37 14       0.7     37 14       0.7     79 54       0.7     79 54       1     79 54       0     68 45       0     68 45       0     43 37       0     18 21 Average max. and min. temperatures in °F Precipitation+Snow totals in inches

By plane

The Aletai City airport (AAT) is 17 km from the town center and can be reached by taxi. The only destinations you can fly to are Urumqi, Xi'an, and Lanzhou. The airport only operates 5 months in each year and closes during winter.

• Altai Airport, southwest of Altai City, 10 km from the city center. Altai Airport is located southwest of Altai City, 10 km from the city center. Southern Airlines Xinjiang Company carries out Urumqi-Altai flights, Guangzhou-Zhengzhou-Altai and other routes. Altai Airport radiates to key scenic spots in the region, realizes ring (string) flight routes of Altai, Fuyun and Kanas regional airports, and opens direct or suspended routes with 11 cities in Urumqi, Kashgar and Klamay. (updated Oct 2024)

By train

Overnight trains arrive from Urumqi via Kuytun and Beitun. Allow 9 to 10 hours. Pickup a bus from the Aletai station to town ¥5.

• 1 Altai (Altay City), A county-level city and capital of Altai Territory in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, located in the western Altai Territory, at the southern foot of the Altai Mountains and at the northern edge of the Junggar Basin (Aviation, Automotive). In June 2017, the Northern (Tun) Altai (LeTai) Railway opened. From the Beitun city station, through the Baribagai station and Altai station 2 stations. In December 2020, the Altai-Fuyun section of Afghanistan Railway opened. (updated Oct 2024)

By bus

The bus station is at Tuanjie Road.

• Burqin — takes about 1.5–2 hours, a bus every hour, costs ¥21
• Urumqi — takes about 12 hours, sleeper ¥160-170
• Yining — takes about 2 days
• Altai. By 2022, Altai City's road access mileage reached 1,364 kilometers, and the road network density reached 14 kilometers per hundred square kilometers. Altai city rural highway has 571 total miles of 1618.49 km, a total of 11 townships (towns), 102 formed villages, Xinjiang's first desert highway S21 Altai to Urumqi highway (updated Oct 2024)

Get around

By bus

Aletai buses cost ¥1 per person between any two stops within the town. Just put ¥1 in the container.

• 101 — from the bus station will to the city center, People's Square (人民广场) and near the PSB
• 1 — from the bus station to city center

See

• Birch Forest Park. Prime bird-watching spot as well as amply endowed with wildflowers. 
• Five Fingers Spring Scenic Area, Within the territory of Khandega Special Township, Altai City, about 5 km from the seat of Khandega Special Township Government. The spring water is cool and sweet, and it is worshipped as divine water by the local Mongolian herdsmen. Drinking this spring water can be auspicious and healthy, and bathing with spring water can cure many diseases. The whole area is surrounded by exposed granite, which has been eroded into turtle-like, frog-like, ghost-faced rocks by the icy water wind, which is really strange, thought-provoking, and a good place for scientific exploration and tourism. Altai residents take their families and families to avoid the cold on weekends, holidays and hot summer days.
  At the top of the fountain, there is a huge rock (commonly known as a probe stone), sticking out more than 3 meters east and looking up, the whole boulder is like a huge left hand palm, palm lines are clearly distinguishable, finger shape is appropriate. (updated Oct 2024)
• 1 Lake Tangba Water Park (塘巴湖), Tangba Lake is within the jurisdiction of Hongdun Township, 32 kilometers from Altai City. The bottom of the lake is flat, shallow to deep, and is a good place to swim. The sand in the lake is quartz sand, but it contains more mica, and under the sun, the golden glow, the sunset, the lake and the sunset reflect, and the water and the sky are one, making people fantasize. Every year, snow and ice melt, and birds flock to the shore to live in grass and flourish.
  Preliminary research includes yellow geese, hemp geese, cranes, swans, ducks, gulls and so on. The water is rich in a variety of delicious fish, mainly carp, silver carp and other fish.
  From December to March of the following year, the ice is 0.6 to 0.8 meters thick, when the earth and the lake are covered with snow, mountains are undulating, silver-clad, and a snowy landscape. Foxes and hares often haunt the area, making it a good place for ice cave fishing, hunting, and sports. (updated Oct 2024)
• 2 Kanas Scenic Area (喀纳斯风景区), A scenic spot in the middle of the Altai Mountains of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, bordering China on Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia. The core essence of Kanas scenic area is the glacier is strongly shaved, and the ice and stone surface is blocked in the valley, forming the end surface ridge into a lake. The lake is 1375 meters above sea level. Lake shaped like a curved moon, 24.5 kilometers long, 1.9 kilometers wide, average depth of 90 meters, maximum depth of 188.4 meters, an area of 69,000 acres, water storage of 4 billion cubic meters, one of China's deep-water lakes. There are 55 scenic spots in Kanas scenic area, which are divided into 33 basic types, including Hanas National Nature Reserve, Kanas National Geopark, Baihaba National Forest Park, Jadenyu National Forest Park, Kanas Valley, Hemu Valley, Narin Prairie.
  It's also the location of 《My Altai》. (updated Oct 2024)
• Nalati steppe. Recommendation index: ★★★★★
  The origin of Nalati: As soon as the sun poked its head, it kissed the grassland with the first rays of sunlight, so the ancestors of the herders gave this land a poetic name - Nalati, which means: the first place to see the sun. April to June is the best season for viewing the flowers in the Nalati grassland, and from July onwards, it is an endless green, quiet and beautiful. (updated Nov 2024)

See

• Birch Forest Park. Prime bird-watching spot as well as amply endowed with wildflowers. 
• Five Fingers Spring Scenic Area, Within the territory of Khandega Special Township, Altai City, about 5 km from the seat of Khandega Special Township Government. The spring water is cool and sweet, and it is worshipped as divine water by the local Mongolian herdsmen. Drinking this spring water can be auspicious and healthy, and bathing with spring water can cure many diseases. The whole area is surrounded by exposed granite, which has been eroded into turtle-like, frog-like, ghost-faced rocks by the icy water wind, which is really strange, thought-provoking, and a good place for scientific exploration and tourism. Altai residents take their families and families to avoid the cold on weekends, holidays and hot summer days.
  At the top of the fountain, there is a huge rock (commonly known as a probe stone), sticking out more than 3 meters east and looking up, the whole boulder is like a huge left hand palm, palm lines are clearly distinguishable, finger shape is appropriate. (updated Oct 2024)
• 3 Lake Tangba Water Park (塘巴湖), Tangba Lake is within the jurisdiction of Hongdun Township, 32 kilometers from Altai City. The bottom of the lake is flat, shallow to deep, and is a good place to swim. The sand in the lake is quartz sand, but it contains more mica, and under the sun, the golden glow, the sunset, the lake and the sunset reflect, and the water and the sky are one, making people fantasize. Every year, snow and ice melt, and birds flock to the shore to live in grass and flourish.
  Preliminary research includes yellow geese, hemp geese, cranes, swans, ducks, gulls and so on. The water is rich in a variety of delicious fish, mainly carp, silver carp and other fish.
  From December to March of the following year, the ice is 0.6 to 0.8 meters thick, when the earth and the lake are covered with snow, mountains are undulating, silver-clad, and a snowy landscape. Foxes and hares often haunt the area, making it a good place for ice cave fishing, hunting, and sports. (updated Oct 2024)
• 4 Kanas Scenic Area (喀纳斯风景区), A scenic spot in the middle of the Altai Mountains of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, bordering China on Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia. The core essence of Kanas scenic area is the glacier is strongly shaved, and the ice and stone surface is blocked in the valley, forming the end surface ridge into a lake. The lake is 1375 meters above sea level. Lake shaped like a curved moon, 24.5 kilometers long, 1.9 kilometers wide, average depth of 90 meters, maximum depth of 188.4 meters, an area of 69,000 acres, water storage of 4 billion cubic meters, one of China's deep-water lakes. There are 55 scenic spots in Kanas scenic area, which are divided into 33 basic types, including Hanas National Nature Reserve, Kanas National Geopark, Baihaba National Forest Park, Jadenyu National Forest Park, Kanas Valley, Hemu Valley, Narin Prairie.
  It's also the location of 《My Altai》. (updated Oct 2024)

Do

Difficult to find anything to do here, it takes 1 hour to walk through the town, though doing some shopping is not a bad idea.

• Kanas Scenic Area. (updated Oct 2024)
• Lake Selim. Photographing the long-awaited Sailim, clear water and blue sky, the reflection of snow-capped mountains, wildflowers in full bloom, cattle and sheep grazing leisurely on the grassland, Sailim Lake has become a photographer's paradise with its beautiful natural landscape of alpine lakes and white swan nature reserve. (updated Nov 2024)

Buy

All kinds of crystals.

Eat

Lamb shish kebab is called merely kebab locally, or in Chinese, yangrouchuer. Beshbarmak, the traditional dish of the Kazakhs, is a mixture of boiled lamb, potatoes, carrots and noodles, and is usually eaten with the hands.

• Lamb stew. Altay's sheep are notoriously delicious! As Li Juan described in "Winter Pasture", the Kazakh herdsmen in Altay migrate with the pastures every year, going deep into different pastures to find places with abundant water and grass, which are often referred to by the locals as "summer nests" and "winter nests" (pastures where herders graze and live in summer and winter). Therefore, the mutton in the Altay region is different from the cattle and sheep raised, it is super delicious, stewed in a pot, and the soup is delicious with only some salt and peppercorns. Winter is the best time to stew mutton, which not only satisfies the taste buds, but also nourishes and warms up. (updated Nov 2024)
• Grilled cold-water fish. Burzin's unique specialty, grilled pike is definitely the first one! Dogfish (also known as Jortey) is a specialty of the Irtysh River, and the meat is particularly delicious, and the taste is even more tender and delicious after being grilled over a charcoal fire. (updated Nov 2024)
• Clay hot pot. Hemu's clay hot pot is not just a different pot, the thick base of the clay hot pot, the round belly, full of sand meat, meatballs, beef, lamb chops and vegetables, plus the soup base with beef bones for several hours, and local spices, simmer slowly over low heat, fragrant but not greasy. (updated Nov 2024)
• Fish head casserole. The fish wharf in Beitun City is a time-honored restaurant, a favorite of locals, and you can find it with a map search. The head is big and meaty, nutritious, and more delicious than fish. The taste is fragrant and the meat is tender. Fresh but not fishy, the soup is milky white like juice, there is no flavor, the best match is tofu, especially in winter, passing by Beitun to drink a bowl of fish head soup. (updated Nov 2024)
• Air-dried beef. Friends who have come to Altay to eat air-dried meat are full of praise when they mention it again. The local production of air-dried meat is generally in autumn, the fresh beef is marinated with an appropriate amount of garlic and salt for a day or two, and then hung in a cool and ventilated place to dry until it is semi-dry. (updated Nov 2024)

Drink

• Original Kazakh yoghurt, in Kazakh is called airan. In Chinese it is Suannai.

Sleep

• Aletai Diqu Hotel (Aletai Diqu Bingguan) (in city center, alone the Kelang River), ☏ +86 906 2122188. Local three star hotel, probably the best you can find, no one speak English there, the hotel restaurant is also decent. 
• Bus Station G.H (just beside the bus station). Clean rooms and hot water. Double ¥100. 
• Golden Bridge Hotel (in city center), ☏ +86 906 2127566. Local three star hotel, no one speak English. 
• Postal Hotel (next to the post office). Two star hotel. They do not speak English. Pay no attention to the marked prices and bargain it down to ¥140. 

Cope

Visas

• PSB - visa extensions. M-F 10AM-noon, 1PM-6PM. Can give you just 7-10 days and will probably send you to Urumqi. Nobody speaks English. ¥160. 

Go next

• Hanas National Nature Reserve — approximately four hours away by bus