Big and Small Dragon Pools

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Travelling northward from Kuche for 140km, you will find two charming alpine lakes ep in Tianshan Mountains, commonly known asBig Dragon Pool” and “Small Dragon Pool Big Dragon Pool is 2,500m long from east to west and 1,000m wide from north to south, with an elevation of 2,370m. It is embosomed in mountains, on which snow gleams white and remains the same all the year round, rare Chinese herbal medicine material called saussurea involucrate grows above the snow line. And green cedars and calocedrus macrolepis are under mountains with a carpet of green grass, cattle and sheep flocks, and yurts of herdsmen interspersed among them. Occasionally, you will see some animals, such as snow cocks, Mongolian gazelles and snow leopards, etc..

The famous Tianshan Road winds its way up to the “Tielimaiti Daban”at an altitude of 3,700m deep in Tianshan Mountains like a black python along the Dragon Pools. Travel for about 70km after passing the longest highway tunnel in China, you will reach the Bayinbuluke Grassland with cattle and sheep flocks enjoying lush grass.

Xuanzang, an eminent monk in Tang Dynasty, once went on a pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures to India by way of the Big Dragon Pool In his Records of the Western Regions of Great Tang, he vividly described the Big Dragon Pool like this:

There is a city in the east of Quzhi State ( Kuche) and there is Big Dragon Pool in front of the deva-kula (a place for worshiping gods) in the north of the city with many dragons in the pool. It is said that a wise King named Jin Hua who governed politics and education in his state clearly and brightly. Thus dragons in the pool were moved and willing to pull the carriage for the King. The King touched the dragons’ears on his deathbed with a whip and dragons hid themselves in the pool immediately. Even now, there is no well in this city and people fetch water from the pool. The dragons came out of the pool, turned into men and intercoursed with women of the city, and their children born to be very brave and ran as fast as a dashing horse. As days went by, people here all became descendants of the dragons. They rode roughshod over others by relying on their courage and strength and disobeyed orders from the King. Therefore, the King induced Turkic people to kill everyone in the city, leaving here abandoned. However, these dragons still often came out of the pool and mated with maria, which gave birth to dragon foals. These foals were violent and fierce hard to control, while, only the horses born by dragon foals can be trained to draw the carriage. As a result, Quzhi State became a place to produce lots of good horses.

Small Dragon Pool is located in the center of the whole scenic spot, with tourist area of 5.72km². It is surrounded by mountains, with Fengping Village, Lenggou Village, Luer Village, and Muguiying Village in four directions respectively. Main attractions include Jianchuan Mountain, Jiwa Peak, Zhaofeng Hill Chessboard Hill, Small Dragon Pool, and Stele Corridor. Water in the Small Dragon Pool is natural mineral water of high quality and it is so clear that one can see the bottom of the pool. It remains constant temperature throughout the year and never dries up even in great drought, with daily flow of 12,000 ton.

It contains multiple microelements, including zinc, boron, selenium, iron, calcium, magnesium, and metasilicic acid, etc., thus it is very useful to promote metabolism of the human body, replenish nutrients and improve cell activity after people drink it for a long time.

The Small Dragon Pool is also called Pearl Pool and Lan Spring and has been well-know far and near since the Tang Dynasty. According to a legend, a black dragon and a white dragon fought for the water before a goddess. Initially, the black one defeated the white one as it was fierce and brutal, But it did kinds of evil things, so it met with opposition among the common people, with whose help the white dragon retook the Lan Spring. The white dragon was very kind and arranged rain very reasonably, thus it was quite respected and loved by the people. Afterwards, people called this pool Small Dragon Pool in memory of the white dragon.

This place is far from cities. There is fresh air no pollution, green mountains and clear water, verdant trees, and gurgling water In summer, it is very cool here and seems to be in spring before noon and autumn in the afternoon If you stay here for few days, you will feel as if you were in a land of idyllic beauty and fairyland on earth after viewing the mountains and listening to birds singing in the bosom of the nature.