Recently, a flash flood occurred on the famous hiking route of Wusun Ancient Road in Xinjiang. On July 31st, a netizen posted a video claiming that tourists had gone missing after being swept away by a flash flood in the Wusun Ancient Road scenic area in Baicheng County, Aksu, Xinjiang.
Wusun Ancient Road is one of Xinjiang’s four major hiking routes, stretching from Qiongkushi Village in Tekes County, Ili, to Heiying Mountain in Baicheng County, with a total length of about 120 kilometers. On the evening of July 30th, the Xinjiang Water Resources Department and the Autonomous Region Meteorological Bureau jointly issued a yellow alert, stating that there was a higher possibility of flash floods occurring in Gongliu County, Xinyuan County, Nileke County, Hejing County, Jinghe County, Baicheng County, and Wusu City from 8 p.m. on July 30th to 8 p.m. on July 31st. Baicheng County’s Heiying Mountain Township was included in the yellow risk zone.
On the morning of July 31st, hiking enthusiast Mr. Huang told “Upstream News” that he started hiking the Wusun Ancient Road on the 23rd and encountered a heavy rainstorm on the 26th, causing the river to swell and trapping more than one hundred people, including organized tour groups and individual hikers, at the tourist center along the ancient road.
Mr. Huang stated that he left the Wusun Ancient Road at 9 p.m. on the 29th and rode a horse for 9 hours to finally reach the exit at Heiying Mountain Pass. He observed that some people were still choosing to hike through the water, as there were more than ten rivers along the way. Although the water was not deep, the current was strong. He also mentioned that two of his teammates were waiting at a nomad camp downstream from the tourist center but had not emerged by July 31st, possibly due to insufficient horses.
On August 1st, the Emergency Management Bureau of Baicheng County, Aksu, Xinjiang, issued a notification stating that at 10:26 a.m. on July 30th, the Baicheng County Public Security Bureau received a report that a hiker named Chen fell into the water and went missing 20 kilometers south of the exit of the Wusun Ancient Road. Chen was found and confirmed to have died. Additionally, another victim, named Zhou, was found deceased in a river 4 kilometers south of the road exit, showing signs of drowning according to preliminary investigations by the public security department.
The notification reported that as of 11 p.m. on July 31st, 158 hikers had been rescued, with over 300 hikers being sheltered at campsites and fire rescue stations along the ancient road.
On the morning of July 30th, Baicheng County’s Tourism Bureau announced that due to continuous rainfall and increasing flash floods along the Wusun Ancient Road area, as well as the complex and dangerous geological environment, the south entrance of Wusun Ancient Road in Heiying Mountain Township of Baicheng County was temporarily closed beginning July 30th.
Similarly, the Tourism Bureau of Tekes also announced on July 30th that the north entrance of Wusun Ancient Road in Qiongkushi Village and the entrance of Arishan Hot Springs in Qielaqiteherike Town have been temporarily closed.