Qinghai Lake
The Qinghai Lake (from the Mongolian also: Koko -nor, Green / Blue sea [ lake ] ) is one of the largest salt lakes in the world.
Location
The lake is located in the Chinese province of Qinghai, whose name is derived from this lake. It extends to a height of 3,195 meters above sea level and has, according to official figures, an area of 4583 km ². This is probably the part already become independent lakes ( Gahai尕 海48.9 km ², Shadao Hu沙岛 湖19.6 km ², Haiyan Hu海晏 湖112.5 km ² and others) separated former bays in the calculation.
In the 1960s, are still 108 opens into the lake flows have been counted, and this number probably has a spiritual meaning: The lake is a sacred lake for the Tibetans in Amdo and thus has obtained in the course of history for the Tibetan Buddhism importance in turn, the 108 is a sacred number. Nevertheless, 85 percent of estuaries in 2004 to have been dried out, including the largest tributary, the 179 km long Buh He ( of mongol Buhain Gol, . Chin布哈 河Buha He). However, the river beds of many small rivers in the extremely dry winter half of the Tibetan Plateau dry up. The Buh He has been on the west side of the Qinghai Hu near the famous bird island ( Niao Dao ) formed a delta which, together with the Niao Dao to set up in 1997 the nature reserve " Qinghai Lake Natural Protection Zone".
Farmland discovery or climate variability have let the water level of the lake since 1959, constantly falling, so that the area of the lake has shrunk down to 4186 km ². With the abandonment of former farmland and restoration of grasslands, one tries to stabilize the water balance again. Thus, the lake surface to be from the year 2007 at 4489 km ². By this operation, before the lake belongs water areas have split off as a separate lakes. The connections to the Qinghai Lake are dry fallen.