It was nearly 11:30 a.m. when we set out, we arrived at the last station - Caohai Wetland on Tengchong North Ring Road, which is formally called Beihai Wetland Park.

Beihai Wetland Park

 Caohai is the wonderful wetland scenery of Tengchong, it is a volcanic barrier lake formed by volcanic eruption, and the above has been gradually covered with a layer of mountain ash as time passes, and the meadow floating on the lake has been gradually formed, commonly known as Caohai. In the Western Yunnan with plenty of volcanoes and terrestrial heat, such a lush wetland shoal is indeed the only survival and really rare.

Lush Wetland Shoal

  We keep slowly down the hillside, and saw the green in the distance, just like a huge pile blanket, which is spread out between both mountains. While the green has been gradually replaced by gray partition and faded out of view near the gate of the scenic spot. This is the common practice of most scenic spots, bringing the beauty of nature into the pocket and letting people pay for it. Elephant Trunk Hill in Guilin and terrace in Yuanyang are the cases. What we have not expected is that the ticket price of Tengchong Caohai Wetland Park has been risen to an unthinkable level, which is up to RMB 110, not including the boat ticket, while the ticket price of Caohai seems to be only RMB 30 or so before with several times up now, which really make us feel threatened.

Viewing Platform

  Although the scenic spot has been renovated and upgraded, the tourists’ feelings can't be ignored. This is the scenic spot with lowest cost performance I have met, a scenic spot with the ticket price of more than RMB 100 should have extraordinary scenery, while there is no prominent highlight in addition to green grass and miscellaneous flowers in Caohai. Two friends from Anhui gave up the tour due to the price of ticket, and my wife also suggested that I may take photos in the spot alone. The three people from Xuzhou may have any preferential certificates, and they may usually visit any scenic spot without tickets. The scenic spot has a new gate and service center, which are very luxurious and artistic, and the viewing platform also seems to be renovated, but the only shortcoming is, if the tourist does not take a boat, he may only walk on the viewing platform but cannot walk into the wetlands for close contact. It's very different from the original news that you can set foot in the Caohai, and the pleasure has been greatly reduced.

Scattering Flowers

  Although April is the season of flowers blooming, there are only scattering flowers in the grass in Caohai not like the sea of flowers. There are aquatic plants and reeds close to the water with boats shuttling among them, and it has the taste of mountains and lakes, with the distant mountains faint on the edge of the Caohai. Anyway, the scenery is not as impressive as expected because of the bad weather. The shadow of the mountains also affects the boundless effect of Caohai, which is different from my ideal wetland. As I wandered in the spot, I remembered that when I joined the army in Heilongjiang, there were a lot of such wetlands in the mountains near our residence, and they are just not so large. The difference was that the pools of water are under the cluster of grass. If you walk on the grass, you may slide into the water without noticing, while your shoes may be only wet with no mud. We have planted trees with the tools of the local forest farm. Insert a pointed steel rod with a hook into the grass, twist it with both hands to form a small pit, and then put the sapling into the pit and compact the soil with your feet.

Flying Egrets

  There were many flowers in the grass in the forest farm, where the scenery of the wetlands was not worse than Caohai, so I drunk in the happy memories. It was the first time that I have met such a large area of wetland park; although we also have local wetland park, the size and landscape cannot be comparable with Caohai. Much to my delight, I saw the white egrets flying over the meadow, with a feeling of alone egret flying with the sunset. We walked on the viewing platform in a hurry, watching and taking pictures from different angles, and we left the spot as we thought that it is no longer nostalgic and then returned to Tengchong County. It was 1 pm around when we finished our entire journey in Tengchong.

(Photos / article: Sina Blog of jg1955)

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