Self-driving Qinghai-Gansu D2 Qinghai Lake D3 Chaka Salt Lake

Originally, we didn't plan to visit these two because the weather in Xining for Qilian and Zhangye wasn't sunny and it was snowing in Qilian, so we turned to choose the direction of the big loop tour. We originally planned to visit both in one day, but we only left Xining at 10 am. After visiting Qinghai Lake, we used Baidu Maps and took the Daohu Tea Road. Near the end, we found the road was under construction and impassable, so we turned back and used Gaode Maps to return to the starting point and took the highway, arriving in Chaka Town only at night. This highway section has a long mountain detour early on, not difficult but quite long. If you travel in the off-season like us and plan to go to Hala Lake, I actually think Qinghai Lake (1-5) can be skipped. We found it a bit boring in the off-season. Also, on cloudy days, you can't see the snow-capped mountains behind, like in (photo 3) where the snow mountains behind are completely invisible. So Hala Lake is the highlight! Heima River and the west side of the lake road are indeed quite suitable for watching the sunrise (though we couldn't get up early). Chaka Salt Lake (photos 7-17) is quite large, but the wind is too strong. We first took the electric cart (5 yuan) to the salt sculpture area (photo 8), then went down from the sky bridge near the salt sculptures and walked slowly on the right side, wandering around. The road is all salt (photo 7). Considering the strong wind on the lake surface, we didn't rent shoe covers to go down. If you want good photos, I recommend renting shoe covers for the experience because in the off-season, the travel photo services inside the scenic area seem to be closed. You can get off the small train at each stop, but the ticket price is one-way. We walked to the end and then took the small train back to the start of the scenic area. If you buy a package ticket, you can get Chaka salt at the cultural and creative center. Buying it yourself costs 3 yuan per pack. Zhejiang residents are exempt from the entrance fee, but you still have to buy tickets for the electric cart and small train. There are many shops and stalls selling specialties at the scenic area exit, and many people warmly invite you to try samples. We thought the rice crackers were good and bought a few packs, 15 yuan each. A fellow traveler who stayed in Chaka and ate at the same yak hotpot restaurant also gave us a pack of sour jujube, which tasted good too. Many shops in Chaka Town close in the off-season. The restaurants we initially wanted to try were also closed, so we ended up eating at roadside shops chosen on the spot.