The Kanas Lake
2 min readKanas means “a place of great wealth, breathtaking views and mystery” in Mongolian. The Kanas Lake is a famous freshwater lake in the center of the forest belt of the Altai Mountain in North Burqin County Aletai Prefecture of Xinjiang, which is characteristic of Swiss scenery, once known as “China’s last piece of pure land”. Its changeable colors and mysterious folk tales attract many tourists every year.
The Kanas Lake, shaped like a bean-pod, covers an area of 45.73 square kilometers. 1,374 meters above sea level with water to an average depth of 120 meters round it, the lake reaches down as far as 188.5 meters. The mountains around the Kanas Lake differ greatly in altitude. Standing on the bank, you can overlook the beauty of the lake and its surroundings. In the south, you can view the Kuitun Mountain and its main Youyi Peak (also called Friendship Peak) covered with snow all the year around. Peaks around are rising one after another.
The forests are like a painted screen. In autumn you can find that under the blue sky and white cloud the lake surface is just like a beautiful large color palette, whose color varies throughout the year: steel gray in May; light green or dark blue in June; milk white with blue-green in July; black green in August; brilliant emerald in September and October－just like a picture.
In the Kanas Lake, you can view “Treasure Light” , called “Buddha Light” by local people, which lights up the clouds after a morning rain, adding an aura of mystery to the lake. When the sun rises or when it is getting dark, on a boat on the lake or standing on the platform at the lake center, if you are lucky, you can see the mysterious “lake monster” like a small boat, appearing or disappearing.
