Ancient military sage leads ranks of tourists

For sightseers, early autumn is the best time to tour Yuncheng Salt Lake, one of the world's three most famous salt lakes with sodium sulfate, covering an area of 132 square kilometers. This lake is often referred to as the "Dead Sea of China", as the amount of salt allows people to float on it.

In summer and autumn, when the temperature rises and falls, different colors appear on the surface of the lake, making it resemble a huge painter's palette when viewed from a high vantage spot.

Autumn is also the time for rare migratory birds to begin to arrive at the lake. In 2014, local bird-watchers began to notice the arrival of several big pink birds, which were then identified as flamingos.

It was the first time that the beautiful and endangered birds had been found in China. Since then, flamingos have been spending winter at the lake.

"This means that Chinese bird lovers can have close contact with the rare birds on home soil, without going overseas," said Ma Hongyi, a local resident and an environmental protection volunteer near the lake. "This also shows the improvement of the environment at this ancient lake in Yuncheng with a history of more than 2.5 million years."

Li Yao contributed to this story.