Amazing Xinjiang: Retracing 'Journey to the West' in the Flaming Mountains

The Flaming Mountains, in the Uygur language, they are called "Kiziltag," meaning the "red mountains." In the work "Classic of Mountains and Seas," they are referred to as the "mountains of flames."

During midsummer, the reddish-brown mountains glow under the scorching sun. Hot air currents rise in waves resembling blazing flames licking the sky, hence the name the "Flaming Mountains."

In the well-known "Journey to the West," the story of Xuanzang's pilgrimage being hindered by the Flaming Mountains and Sun Wukong borrowing the banana fan three times originated in this place.

People come in droves in search of "Journey to the West," but they find more than that. Where history meets the present, and nature meets culture, the wonders of the Flaming Mountains and the charm of cultural fusion are now bursting with new vitality.