Honghai Bay Scenic Area 红海湾

About Honghai Bay Scenic Area

The county government's tourism page, credited to the county culture, sport, radio-television and tourism bureau, places the scenic area at Anakule township 12 km from the county town, records that work on it began in 2009 and that it received the national 4A tourist attraction title in 2014, and gives its planned area as 148 square kilometres with an 80 square kilometre core area and a 38 km touring circuit. It records five core landscape areas — the folk-culture village, the Kashgar River Silk Road ancient road, Golden Poplar Island, the Honghaiwan Water Park and the Honghai Wetland Park.

The same page describes the folk-culture village as presenting the daily life of the peoples who have long lived in the poplar forest; the Kashgar River Silk Road ancient road as having 10 pavilions and 18 beacon towers along it and as reconstructing the traffic of caravan traders; Golden Poplar Island as a window on Maralbexi's 3.26 million mu of wild poplar forest, where the poplar's three-thousand-year legend is offered; and the Honghai Wetland Park as presenting the wetland culture of the western-region gobi and as lying on migratory bird routes. It records that the whole area is organised around water, meaning the Kashgar River, and roads, meaning the Silk Road ancient road.

The China News Service item, credited to the county's own publication channel, records the county culture, sport, radio-television and tourism bureau director explaining that the scenic area takes its name from the Honghai reservoir, that local people call the reservoir a sea because water is scarce there, and that in summer and autumn suaeda grass turns the reservoir margins red, which together with the area's extensive tamarisk is why the place beside the desert is called the Red Sea. It records that besides poplars the area has rivers, forest and shrub landscapes.

The catalogue calls the place 红海湾, but the county page uses that string only inside the name of one of the five core landscape areas, the Honghaiwan Water Park, and names the whole area 红海景区; no cited page uses the bare form 红海湾 for the scenic area as a whole. Neither page gives the area a boundary in the form a visitor notice would, and neither states which of the five areas are open or how the scenic area is administered.

What to look for

• Golden Poplar Island, which the county page records as a window on Maralbexi's 3.26 million mu of wild poplar forest
• The Kashgar River Silk Road ancient road, which the county page records as having 10 pavilions and 18 beacon towers along it
• The Honghai Wetland Park, which the county page records as presenting western-region gobi wetland culture and as lying on migratory bird routes
• The folk-culture village, which the county page records as presenting the daily life of the peoples who have long lived in the poplar forest
• The poplar forest that the China News Service item records turning gold in October, a period it calls the area's best viewing season

Location & getting there

Getting to Honghai Bay Scenic Area

Check the open visitor route and follow the site’s rules on distance, food and photography. Conservation areas may limit access beyond designated paths.

• Search for 红海湾 with 喀什地区 and 巴楚县.