Aiding Lake
( 2005-09-13 )

Aiding Lake is situated in the southern part ofTurpanBasin in Northwest China'sXinjiangUygur Autonomous Region, about 40 kilometers south of the city of Turpan. It is a salt lake with an area of 124 square kilometers. The lake is 155 meters below sea level -- the lowest place in China and the second lowest place in the world, next to only the Dead Sea (-391 meters) of Jordan.

Aiding means moonlight in Uygur language. The name is derived from its fabulous shape, which looks like a beautiful moon. Millions of years ago, the Aiding Lake was a freshwater lake one thousand times the size of the present one. But, except for a sheet of very shallow water in its southwest part, today's Aiding Lake consists of only silvery white salt crystals, with salt crusts shimmering on the dried-up lake bottom. Also for this reason, the local Uygur people call it "Moonlight Lake."

The lake's bottom is flat with shallow waters. The lakebed is 40 kilometers long from east to west and 8 kilometers wide from north to south. The water is only 1 meter deep at its deepest point. The lake now occupies a much smaller area than its recorded area of 152 square kilometers in 1949, with bitter saltwater remaining only in the western part.

The water's mineral content is as high as 200 grams per liter, with much glassy potassium nitrate and salt collecting at the lake's bottom as a result of many years of strong evaporation.