Baiyang River

The Baiyang River (), also known under a Mongolian name transcribed in Chinese as Namuguolei (), is a river in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China. It flows through the region's Tacheng Prefecture and the Urho District of Karamay City. The river's total length is estimated at , and the average annual flow at . The river's basin occupies ,

The Baiyang River starts in a massif near the junction of the Tarbagatai and Saur mountain ranges, near Xinjiang's border with Kazakhstan. It flows in a general southeastern direction, toward the endorheic Dzungarian Basin. Along much of its length it forms the border between Hoboksar Mongol Autonomous County in the east and Emin and Toli Counties in the west. It crosses Urho District of Karamay City, and then re-enters Hoboksar County.

The Baiyang River is dammed at ； the dam creates the Baiyang River Reservoir (白杨河水库) with an area of .

The Irtysh–Karamay Canal crosses the Baiyang River on an aqueduct at , upstream of Urho District's main urban area. A provision has been made for letting about 1/3 of the water flow from the canal into the Baiyang River, (), thus improving the water supply situation in Urho District and a revitalizing the riverside wetlands. The Baiyang River canyon in the western part of Urho District is considered a scenic site.

The river enters the Gurbantünggüt Desert and ends in the endorheic Ailik Lake. The river forms a small delta as it enters the lake (). As of 1999, the lake's water surface elevation was above sea level.

Due to the construction of the Baiyang River Reservoir and the Huangyangquan Reservoir (see below) and the concomitant diversion of the Baiyang River waters, the Ailik Lake started shrinking in the 1980s; by the mid 1980s, it was just in size and hardly deep; by the 1990s, it had virtually dried up. Since the opening of the Irtysh–Karamay Canal in August 2000, the Ailik lake, which had been almost dry, has been able to recover as a deep lake with plenty of fish; now it occupies and is up to deep.

While there is no further surface water flow out of the Ailik Lake, some water from this lake is believed to seasonally seep through ground fractures of the Kewu Fault into the nearby Small Ailik Lake (小艾里克湖, ), whose water surface is (as of 1999) at about above sea level. Potentially, water can seep through the same fault even farther to the southwest, to the dry Alan Nur lake (the former terminus of the Manas River).

A distributary canal

For over downstream from the Baiyang River Reservoir to the Ailik Lake, the natural river bed of the Baiyang River is paralleled by an artificial, concrete-lined canal, which leaves the reservoir at , crosses the Irtysh–Karamay Canal at , passes through the Huangyangquan Reservoir (黄羊泉水库, dam at
), and ends in what appears to be an aquaculture facility at .

Other uses

Numerous watercourses in Central Asia (including Kazakhstan and Xinjiang) carry names meaning "Poplar River" in Chinese or in a Turkic language. This includes the Baiyang River of Toksun County, which flows from the main Tian Shan range toward Lake Aydingkol, as well as several Terekty Rivers in Kazakhstan or Kazakh-speaking sections of Xinjiang.

Notes

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Rivers of Xinjiang