Qinghai Lake

Scale and setting

Qinghai Lake sits on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai Province, spanning the boundary between Haibei and Hainan prefectures, centered near 37.0°N, 100.1°E at about 3,196 meters above sea level. At roughly 4,500 square kilometers it is the largest lake in China and the largest saline lake in the country — an endorheic basin, meaning its rivers flow in and nothing flows out, which is why the water is salt.

The lake gave the province its name. Its size is hard to register from the shore: standing at the water’s edge, the opposite side is simply not there, and the loop road around it runs about 360 kilometers.

Where visitors actually go

The 5A scenic area centers on Erlangjian, a promontory on the southern shore reached from the road between Xining and the west. Bird Island, on the western side, is the other classic stop — a breeding and staging site for migratory birds including bar-headed geese, with the birds present in spring and early summer rather than year-round.

The image most people arrive for is July: sheets of yellow rapeseed flowering along the northern and eastern shores against the blue of the lake. That window is short and it is the busiest few weeks of the year. The lake also lends its name to a long-running international road cycling race, and the ring road carries cyclists all summer.

Altitude and weather

At over 3,000 meters, arriving directly from low elevation can bring altitude symptoms; most visitors come via Xining, which sits lower and makes a reasonable staging point. Ultraviolet exposure at this elevation is severe even on cool days.

Weather changes quickly and the wind off the water is cold in any season. Winter brings ice, and the lake has frozen over in cold years, but access and services are much reduced outside the summer months.