Embracing the cold

A tourist posing for a picture on the Bogdanovich glacier, 3,500m above sea level, located in the Tian Shan mountain range, last Saturday.

With the pandemic preventing overseas travel, Kazakhs are flocking to the magnificent glaciers of the Tian Shan mountain range near their country's biggest city, Almaty, Reuters reported.

A mountain guide Reuters in-terviewed said that the number of tourists who visited last year was several times more than in previous years, especially those from Kazakhstan itself.

Like other natural sites, the glacier has not been spared from climate change, and is dwindling due to global warming.

The guide said its lowest point has retreated about 1.5 km since he first visited it about 30 years ago.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 27, 2021, with the headline Embracing the cold. Subscribe