Xinjiang · The Other Heavenly Lake
Heavenly Lake of Tian Shan (天山天池)
A turquoise lake at about 1,900 metres in a spruce valley below Bogda Peak, an hour and a half from Urumqi. It shares its English name with the crater lake at Changbai Mountain and was made the opposite way.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | A mountain lake in a glaciated valley of the eastern Tian Shan, ringed by spruce forest, with Kazakh summer pasture on the slopes above |
|---|---|
| Where | Fukang, about 100 km east of Urumqi in Xinjiang |
| Altitude | The lake sits at roughly 1,900 m. Bogda Peak above it is listed at 5,445 m |
| How it formed | Quaternary glaciers left a bank of moraine across the valley and the water collected behind it |
| Listed | A UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Xinjiang Tianshan property, inscribed in 2013 |
| The name | Tianchi means heavenly lake. The crater lake at Changbai Mountain has the same name and a different history |
| What a visit is | A shore road, boat trips, and paths and a cable car up to the pasture and viewpoints above |
| Time needed | A full day from Urumqi, or half a day if you only want the shore |
Why Go
Two Heavenly Lakes, Opposite Histories
1. The same name, made the other way round
China has two famous lakes called Tianchi and English gives both of them the same name. The one at Changbai Mountain in the far northeast sits in a crater: a volcano removed its own summit and the hole filled with water. This one was made by the opposite process. Glaciers worked down this valley during the Quaternary, and when they retreated they left a bank of rubble across it. The water backed up behind that bank and has been there ever since.
The shape of each lake gives it away. A crater lake is round because the hole was round. This one is long and narrow and bent, because it is a drowned valley and it takes the shape the valley already had. That is a useful thing to carry around China: the outline of a lake usually tells you what made it, and this site has several to compare, from the lava-dammed valley at Jingpo Lake to the reservoir at Qiandao Lake.
2. Water level and pasture level
The shore is a managed place. There is a sealed road round part of it, a boardwalk carried on trestles along the steeper stretches, a boat dock with a floating pavilion, a small beach and a scatter of buildings and car parks among the trees. None of that is hidden and none of it needs to spoil the visit, but nobody should arrive expecting an empty shoreline.
Above the water it changes quickly. The slopes carry spruce forest and then open grazing, and Kazakh families still bring stock up to these pastures for the summer and put up yurts on the benches above the lake. Walking or taking the lift up out of the shore zone is the difference between a boat trip and a mountain day, and it costs an hour.
The catch. This is one of the busiest destinations in Xinjiang and the shore reflects it: boats, loudspeakers, a long transfer-bus queue at the gate in season and a lot of construction at the north end. The lake is also at altitude in a range that makes its own weather, and Bogda Peak spends much of the summer behind cloud, so the postcard view of snow above turquoise is not a given.
Orientation
From Urumqi, and Then Upward
Urumqi is the base and the lake is about two hours away by road, with tour buses running from the city daily. Private vehicles stop at the gate: from there everyone transfers to park shuttles for the last stretch up the valley, and the queue for those in high season is the part that eats the morning.
At the lake there is a shore path, a boat pier and a cable car that lifts visitors to viewpoints and pasture above the water. The standard half day is shore and boat. The better full day adds the lift and a walk along the slopes, which is where the yurts and the long views over the lake are.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
Go up, not just along
The shore is the crowded part and the pasture above it is not. An hour of climbing or one lift ride changes the character of the day completely.
Start early for the shuttle
The transfer queue at the gate is the bottleneck in summer, and it is much shorter in the first hour after opening.
Do not count on the peak
Bogda is behind cloud a great deal of the time. Treat a clear summit as a bonus rather than the reason for the trip.
Autumn is the better bet
Late September and early October bring the clearest air of the year, the poplars turn, and the mountain is more often out.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Late September to mid October | Golden poplar and larch around the lake, clear air and the best odds on the snow ranges | The first week of October is a national holiday and very busy |
| June to August | Warm, green, the boats running and the Kazakh pasture in use above the lake | The peak season for crowds, and the summit is often clouded |
| May and early June | Snow still lying high, meltwater running and fewer visitors | Cold and changeable, and some upper paths may be closed |
| November to April | The lake freezes and the whole place empties | Severely cold, and access and facilities are limited |
Context
A Wet Range in a Dry Province
Xinjiang is mostly desert, and the exceptions are the mountains. The Tian Shan runs across the middle of the province for some fifteen hundred kilometres and works as a water tower: it catches what little moisture reaches this far inland, stores it as snow and ice, and releases it down the valleys in summer. Every oasis city on either side of the range, Urumqi included, exists because of that.
So a visitor coming from the city sees a change that is almost too abrupt to believe. Urumqi sits in dry country with bare brown hills around it. Ninety minutes later there is continuous spruce forest, running water and a lake. The forest is on the north-facing slopes, where snow lies longer and evaporation is lower; the south-facing slopes opposite are grass and bare rock. The pattern is visible from the road and it is the clearest lesson in mountain climate anyone gets on a day trip.
The pasture matters as much as the forest. Kazakh herding families have used these summer grasslands for generations, moving stock up as the snow retreats and down again in autumn. The yurts above the lake are part of that cycle and part of the tourist economy at the same time, and both things are true at once.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Spot · 3,300 km east
Changbai Mountain (长白山)
The other Heavenly Lake, in a volcano on the Korean border. Not a trip you combine, but the comparison is the point.
Spot · 700 km west
Kalajun Grassland (喀拉峻)
High Tian Shan pasture with almost nothing built on it, at the far end of the same range.
Spot · 620 km northwest
Kanas Lake (喀纳斯)
A glacial lake in the Altai, with forest and a very different water colour.
Where to Base
Urumqi (乌鲁木齐)
Urumqi is the base for northern Xinjiang and this lake is the standard day trip from it. The city itself is a modern provincial capital rather than an old Silk Road town, and most visitors treat it as a hub: fly in, use it for a night or two, and go out to the mountains and the grasslands.
The useful thing about doing the lake from here is the contrast. The drive out crosses gravel desert and brown hills for an hour, and then the road climbs into forest. Nothing explains why Xinjiang looks the way it does better than watching that change from a bus window.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On site · half day
The shore and the boat
The standard visit: shuttle up, the shore path, and a crossing by boat.
On site · full day
Lake and pasture
The lift or the climb to the grazing benches above the water, with the forest and grassland pattern explained on the way.
Guided · 6 days
Northern Xinjiang
This lake, the Ili grasslands and the Altai, arranged so the range makes sense as one system rather than three stops.
Go early, get through the shuttle queue, and then leave the water. An hour above the shore there are yurts, spruce and a view down the whole length of it, and the shape of that view is the answer to the only question worth asking here: a long bent lake in a valley was not blasted out by an eruption. It was left behind by ice.
Desert City, Forest Lake, Same Morning
Tell us your dates and our local team will get you up the valley before the coaches, onto the pasture above the lake rather than just along the shore, and out to the Ili grasslands afterwards if you want the range at full length.