Kanas Lake
Interesting facts
- Kanas is considered China's deepest moraine-dammed lake: Quaternary glaciers gouged its basin and left debris that holds the water back.
- The lake runs about 24 kilometres from north to south yet averages less than two kilometres across, which gives it its narrow crescent outline.
- In 1985 a Xinjiang University team led by Yuan Guoying reported giant fish in the lake, estimating some at 10 to 15 metres long.
- According to local legend, a huge 'big red fish' haunts the depths; some scientists suggest sightings may be shoals of taimen moving together rather than single animals.
- Besides taimen, the cold water holds Siberian species such as burbot, Arctic grayling and lenok, a reminder that this basin belongs to the Arctic watershed.
- Water leaving the lake flows via the Kanas and Burqin rivers into the Irtysh, one of the few Chinese rivers that ultimately drain to the Arctic Ocean.
- The lake surface lies about 1,340 metres above sea level and holds roughly 5.5 cubic kilometres of water.
- Snow covers the Kanas valley for around eight months a year, often lying one to two metres deep.
- The surrounding reserve was created in 1980 and raised to the status of a national nature reserve in 1986.
- Roughly 2,000 Tuvans live in the Kanas area, alongside Kazakh herders who move their flocks with the seasons.
Why it is worth it
Kanas Lake lies in a deep, forested valley of the Altai Mountains at the far northern tip of Xinjiang, close to where China meets Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. It is a long, curving lake — often described as a crescent — carved by glaciers some two hundred thousand years ago, and it is startlingly deep: more than 120 metres on average and close to 190 at its deepest. Its water is famous for changing colour, from milky jade after the summer melt to clear blue-green, under forested slopes that seem more Siberian than Chinese.
The best way to grasp its scale is from the Guanyu Pavilion, the "fish-watching" lookout perched more than 600 metres above the water, reached by a long stairway of over a thousand steps. From there the lake winds away between ridges with snow peaks at its head. Below the lake, the Kanas River runs through a sequence of bends that have become views in their own right: Moon Bay, a crescent of water whose shape shifts with the level of the river, and Wolong Bay, where a wooded island lies in the stream like a resting animal.
The lake is at its most striking in September and early October, when the birches and larches turn gold and amber, morning mist lies on the water, and the hillside colours are mirrored in the river bays.
The pavilion's name points to the lake's other fame. For centuries there have been reports of huge creatures in its depths; one explanation offered by scientists is very large taimen, a giant salmon-like fish of Siberian rivers. Around the lake live Tuvan and Kazakh communities, and the Tuvan villages of log houses inside the reserve are as much part of the picture as the water. The area is a national nature reserve and appears on China's tentative list for World Heritage.
Getting there
The lake is in Burqin County, Altay Prefecture. Burqin Kanas Airport (KJI) is about 66 km away in a straight line, with a longer drive through the mountains; the nearest town of any size by straight line is about 104 km away. Visitors usually stay either in hotels at Jiadengyu, the gateway outside the scenic area, or in the Tuvan villages inside it, and travel within the area by shuttle bus.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Kanas Lake is a lake in Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. The lake is located in a valley in the Altai Mountains, near the very northern tip of Xinjiang and the autonomous region's borders with Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The lake was formed around 200,000 years ago during the Quaternary period as a result of glacier movement. The crescent moon shaped lake has an estimated water storage capacity of 53.8 billion cubic meters, coupled with an average depth of around 120 meters.
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48.81500, 87.04000per Wikidata