Heaven Lake ( Korean: , ''Ch'ŏnji'' or ''Cheonji''; zh, 天池, ''Tiānchí'';

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

: ''Tamun omo'' or ''Tamun juce'') is a crater lake on the border between

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 ...

and North Korea. It lies within a

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

atop the volcanic Paektu Mountain, a part of the Baekdudaegan and Changbai mountain ranges. It is located partly in Ryanggang Province, North Korea, at , and partly in Jilin Province, northeastern China. Heaven Lake has been recognized as the highest volcanic lake in the world by the Shanghai Office of the ''

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

''.

Geology and limnology

The

which contains Heaven Lake was created by the 946 eruption of Paektu Mountain. The lake has a surface elevation of . The lake covers an area of with a south–north length of and an east–west length of . The average depth of the lake is and a maximum depth of . From mid-October to mid-June, it is typically covered with ice.

History

Names and legends

In ancient Chinese literature, ' also refers to ' ( sometimes translated as "southern sea"). North Korean propaganda claims that

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...

was born near the lake on the mountain. In accordance with this, North Korean news agencies reported that on his death, the ice on the lake cracked "so loud, it seemed to shake the heavens and the Earth".

Notable visits

As part of an Inter-Korean summit, heads of states

Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...

and Moon Jae-in visited Mount Paektu and Heaven Lake on September 20, 2018. Moon filled a bottle with water from the lake to take back to South Korea. The visit to the lake was a symbolic gesture, as both the lake and the mountain have considerable cultural significance to the Korean people. Mount Paektu is mentioned in the anthems of both North and South Korea, and is considered to be the spiritual home of the Koreans.

Lake Tianchi Monster

Heaven Lake is also alleged to be home to the Lake Tianchi Monster. On September 6, 2007, Zhuo Yongsheng (director of a TV station's news center run by the administration office of the nature reserve at Mount Changbaishan, Jilin) shot a 20-minute video of six seal-like, finned " Lake Tianchi Monsters", near the North Korean border. He sent pictures of the Loch Ness Monster-type creatures to Xinhua's Jilin provincial bureau. One of them showed the creatures swimming in three pairs, in parallel. Another showed them together, leaving ripples on the volcanic lake.Tianchi monster' caught on film"
people.com.cn

In popular culture

The lake is the subject of the song "Tianchi Lake" on

The Mountain Goats The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Durham, North Carolina. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle, despite the ...

' 2008 album

Heretic Pride ''Heretic Pride'' is the eleventh studio album by the Mountain Goats, released in the UK on February 18, 2008, and in the US on February 19 by 4AD, their sixth album on the label. It is the first to feature the band's lineup of John Darnielle, P ...

References

Notes

{{Jilin topics Lakes of China Calderas of Asia Volcanic crater lakes Bodies of water of Jilin China–North Korea border International lakes of Asia Lakes of North Korea