Qinghai · A Salt Lake at 3,200 Metres That Is Getting Bigger
Qinghai Lake (青海湖)
China’s largest lake by area, saline, with no outlet to the sea, sitting on the northeast corner of the Tibetan plateau. The yellow in every photograph of it is a crop, and the lake itself has been rising for twenty years.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | A large saline lake with no outflow, on the plateau northwest of Xining |
|---|---|
| Where | About 150 km west of Xining, at roughly 3,200 m |
| Size | China’s largest lake by area, at somewhere over 4,400 square kilometres and changing |
| Salt | Brackish rather than fresh. Water comes in from rivers and leaves only by evaporation, so the salts stay |
| Rising | The level fell through the second half of the twentieth century and has been rising since the mid-2000s |
| The fish | A scaleless carp found nowhere else, which the lake’s birds depend on. Fishing is restricted |
| The flowers | Rapeseed, an oil crop, sown on the farmland along the north and east shores. Peak is July |
| Time needed | A day trip from Xining for one viewing area. Two to three days to circle it |
Why Go
Read It as a Closed System
1. Nothing leaves except water vapour
Qinghai Lake sits in a basin with no outlet. Rivers run into it off the surrounding ranges and nothing runs out, so the only way water leaves is by evaporating, and everything dissolved in it stays behind. That is why a lake fed entirely by fresh mountain water is salty, and why its level is a direct readout of the balance between what the rivers bring and what the air takes.
Through the second half of the twentieth century that balance ran negative and the lake shrank, year after year, to the point where it was a standard example of plateau desiccation. Since the mid-2000s it has been rising again, on the plateau getting wetter and on more meltwater coming off the mountains. Old roads and buildings near the shore have gone under. It is one of the few large lakes in the world currently gaining.
2. One fish holds the whole thing up
The lake has a single significant fish, a scaleless carp that exists nowhere else and grows extremely slowly in cold, brackish water. Everything with feathers here eats it: the gulls, the cormorants, the terns, and the colonies on the islands that make this one of the important bird sites on the plateau.
It was fished hard in the twentieth century and the population collapsed, taking the bird numbers with it. Closed seasons and restocking have brought it partway back, and each summer the fish run up the feeder rivers to spawn in such numbers that the shallows look solid. That run is the single most interesting thing to time a visit around, and almost no foreign visitor knows it happens.
The catch. The lake is enormous and mostly inaccessible, so what visitors actually get is one or two ticketed viewing areas with jetties, speedboats, photo props and a plastic pontoon out into the water. Dressed-up yaks and saddled horses are there to be photographed with, for a fee. If you want the lake rather than the visitor area, you need a car and a day to drive the shore road.
Orientation
One Viewing Area, or the Whole Shore
The standard day trip from Xining goes to a single ticketed area on the southeast shore, which has the jetty, the boats and the flower fields behind it. It is two hours each way and two hours on site, and it is what most tour buses do.
The alternative is to drive the shore road, which is around 360 km all the way round and takes two to three days with stops. That is also the route cyclists ride; the road is good, the traffic is light, and the lake changes colour completely depending on which side of it you are on and what the sun is doing.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
July for the flowers, and expect company
The rapeseed is at its peak for a few weeks in July and the whole province knows it. Rooms along the north shore book out.
It is 3,200 m
Xining is already 2,275 m, so most people arrive partly acclimatised, but the lake is higher and the sun at this altitude is severe. Cover up.
Check Bird Island before planning around it
It has been closed to visitors for conservation. Do not build a day on seeing it without confirming first.
Agree prices before the photograph
The yaks, horses and costumes at the viewing areas are all chargeable, and the rate is whatever was not discussed beforehand.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| July | The rapeseed in flower along the shore, which is the picture everyone has seen | The busiest few weeks of the year and the most expensive |
| June and August | Green, mild, long days, and the fish running up the rivers in mid-summer | Afternoon storms build quickly at this altitude |
| September to October | The clearest air of the year and the lake at its most intensely blue | Cold at night, and the first week of October is the national holiday |
| November to April | The lake freezes and the ice is genuinely worth seeing. Almost nobody is there | Severe cold, closed facilities, and the shore road can be difficult |
Context
A Lake With Three Names
The lake is Qinghai in Chinese, Tso Ngonpo in Tibetan and Kokonor in Mongolian, and all three mean roughly the same thing: blue lake. That it has kept three names in daily use is the shortest way to describe this region, which has been Tibetan, Mongol and Chinese administrative space in overlapping layers for centuries.
The province takes its name from the lake rather than the other way round. It is grazing country: the grasslands around the shore support sheep and yak, the farmland with the rapeseed on it is a relatively recent and fairly narrow strip, and the towns are small.
It is also a sacred lake in Tibetan practice, circumambulated by pilgrims on a circuit that takes weeks on foot. The cars, the cyclists and the pilgrims all use the same road, which is a reasonable summary of what the plateau looks like now.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Spot · 140 km east
Kumbum Monastery (塔尔寺)
One of the six great Gelug monasteries, just outside Xining, and reachable without a Tibet permit.
Salt flat · 150 km west
Chaka Salt Lake (茶卡盐湖)
The mirror salt flat further west, usually bundled into the same trip and much more heavily managed than this one.
Spot · 290 km east
Bingling Temple Grottoes (炳灵寺石窟)
Cliff carvings reached by boat across a reservoir on the Yellow River, over the border in Gansu.
Where to Base
Xining (西宁)
Xining is the base for everything in this province and sits at 2,275 m, which makes it a sensible place to spend a night or two before going higher. It is on the railway to Lhasa, which is the other reason travellers pass through.
Two days covers the lake as a day trip plus Kumbum. Four or five lets you drive the shore road, take in Chaka, and come back a different way.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On site · 2 hr
The viewing area
The jetty, the pontoon and the flower fields behind, which is what the standard day trip delivers.
Self-drive · 2 to 3 days
The shore road
The full circuit of the lake, with the grasslands, the small towns and the sides of it no tour bus reaches.
Guided · 5 days
Xining, the lake and Chaka
The monastery, the lake circuit and the salt flat, paced for the altitude.
Worth two days rather than one, and worth driving rather than being driven to a jetty. Go in July if you want the yellow fields and accept the crowds, or in September if you want the lake itself at its best. Remember that the flowers are somebody’s oil crop, the yaks are props, and the water is salty and rising.
Plan the Lake as a Circuit
Tell us your dates and what you are after, and our local team will build the route: Xining for the altitude, Kumbum on the way, and the shore road driven rather than the one jetty everybody stops at.