Kanas Lake (,
Xiao'erjing: كَانَاسِ خٗ;
Mongolian: Ханас нуур; ,
USY
United Synagogue Youth (USY) is the youth movement of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ). It was founded in 1951, under the auspices of the Youth Commission of what was then the United Synagogue of America.
USY operates in the ...
: Қанас Көли) is a lake in
Altay Prefecture,
Xinjiang,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. The lake is located in a valley in the
Altai Mountains
The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The m ...
, 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
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...
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.
The
Kanas River, flowing out of the lake, later merges with the Hemu River to form the Burqin River, which itself discharges into the
Irtysh River
The Irtysh ( otk, 𐰼𐱅𐰾:𐰇𐰏𐰕𐰏, Ertis ügüzüg, mn, Эрчис мөрөн, ''Erchis mörön'', "erchleh", "twirl"; russian: Иртыш; kk, Ертіс, Ertis, ; Chinese: 额尔齐斯河, pinyin: ''É'ěrqísī hé'', Xiao'erj ...
at Burqin Town, the county seat of
Burqin County
Burqin County is a county in Xinjiang, China and is under the administration of the Kazakh autonomous area of Altay Prefecture. It has an area of with a population of 70,000. The postcode is 836600.
Administrative divisions
* Town (镇 / ب ...
.
There is a large population of ethnic
Tuvans and
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts o ...
in the Kanas valley. While most of these people have maintained their traditional
agricultural
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...
and
nomadic life styles, many work in the developing tourism industry and have established facilities for
orienteering
Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a s ...
,
hiking,
rafting,
rock climbing
Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...
,
paragliding and
camping. The ''scenic spot'' is classified as a
AAAAA scenic area by the
China National Tourism Administration.
About 117 different kinds of birds live along the lake.
Giant fish
For several centuries there have been sightings of large lake creatures in the waters. First efforts in research of these legends were done by Yuan Guoying of
Xinjiang University, who observed fish of enormous size in 1985. He and his students assessed that the fish could be 10 – 15 m long and weigh more than 4 tons, with total population in excess of 50 individuals.
Frequency of observation has increased in the 21st century, with the development of mass tourism. A video was taken and shown in the local Chinese media where numerous unidentifiable creatures can be seen.
According to
CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
10, the creatures living in the lake are speculated by Chinese scholars to be giant ''
Hucho taimen
Siberian taimen (''Hucho taimen''), also known as the common taimen (russian: Обыкнове́нный тайме́нь, Obyknovénnyĭ taĭménʹ), Siberian giant trout or Siberian salmon, is a species of salmon-like ray-finned fish from the ...
''.
YouKu
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Gallery
File:LakeKanas.jpg, Kanas view
File:Kanas glacier alpine.jpg, Kanas lake besides the alpine glacier
File:Kanas silk road tour.jpg, Kanas lake tour
File:Kanas Lake, China, LandSat image.jpg, Lake Kanas satellite Landsat 7
Landsat 7 is the seventh satellite of the Landsat program. Launched on 15 April 1999, Landsat 7's primary goal is to refresh the global archive of satellite photos, providing up-to-date and cloud-free images. The Landsat program is managed and ...
, 2006
File:Quaternary age Kanas lake 2009-0827.jpg, The Kanas River, part of the Irtysh River
The Irtysh ( otk, 𐰼𐱅𐰾:𐰇𐰏𐰕𐰏, Ertis ügüzüg, mn, Эрчис мөрөн, ''Erchis mörön'', "erchleh", "twirl"; russian: Иртыш; kk, Ертіс, Ertis, ; Chinese: 额尔齐斯河, pinyin: ''É'ěrqísī hé'', Xiao'erj ...
to the Arctic Ocean, view from rafting boat
See also
* Ake Kule Lake
Ake Kule Lake () is a lake in Altay Prefecture, Xinjiang, China, close to the borders of Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia ...
* Tourism in China
Tourism in China is a growing industry that is becoming a significant part of the Chinese economy. The rate of tourism has expanded over the last few decades since the beginning of reform and opening-up. The emergence of a newly rich middle cl ...
References
External links
*
CCTV News: Unknown Creatures Videotaped by An Amateur in Lake Kanas
{{Authority control
Lakes of Xinjiang
AAAAA-rated tourist attractions
World Heritage Tentative List
Nature reserves in China
LKanas