it is named after its Mongolian name 库尔喀拉乌苏, meaning ''the dark water from snow mountain'';

I love that name, so evocative. Nice pictures, although I live in the city I'm more of a wilderness lover. Did you get out of the city to the surrounding countryside areas at all while you stayed in Xinjiang?

I read the folk song with interest and prefered the second version as a poem (despite the lack of rhymes 😂). The first version flowed better as a song with the strong rhymes, but the meaning and purity of the imagery in the second version:

the sky is like the sides of a tent
Stretched down over the Great Steppe

was more poetic and crisp for me.

Thanks for sharing 🙂