Shanshan County, Turpan City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Aerial shot of Flaming Mountain scenic spot
2. Various of giant thermometer, tourists
3. Tourists posing for photo with sculptures
4. Tourists walking
5. Vendor putting eggs onto sandpit
6. Eggs on sandpit
7. Various of tourists, eggs on sandpit
8. Aerial shot of desert
9. Various of tourists having sand bath

Turpan City in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is tapping into the potential of its rich thermal energy for the robust travel industry and thus blazed a new economic growth model suiting its own reality.

Surrounded by deserts and mountains, Turpan is well-known for its immense summertime heat energy, which has provided favorable resources for developing sectors of thermal therapy, healthcare service, eco-tourism and sand-heating cure, among a host of other applications in light of its geographical and climate conditions.

The Flaming Mountain scenic area, a tourist attraction known for its fire-like sandstone, has recently seen its temperature surge to the highest in a year, with the maximum daytime temperature of around 45 degrees Celsius, according to the local meteorological bureau.

Readings from a giant thermometer standing in the scenic spot show surface temperature can reach some 70 degrees Celsius every day between 15:00. and 16:00.

As the summer holiday season is underway in China, many tourists flock to the Flaming Mountain.

Local vendors are ready to impress people traveling from other places with a common, but unique dish of boiled eggs in hot sand. It takes about an hour to well cook the eggs after being placed in a sandpit.

The "egg hill" has attracted many travelers to take pictures.

The sand can not only serve as an oven, but also a bath tube.

The city has built tens of places for people to bury themselves in the sand in the sun.

It is believed that "sand therapy" protects the body from some types of diseases thanks to the combination of heat, arid conditions, the sun's rays, and minerals from the sand.

Thousands of tourists go to Turpan to take a sand bath each day.