Location
Bortala, Xinjiang
Sayram Lake is the highest and largest alpine ...
Sayram Lake is the highest and largest alpine lake in Xinjiang, its surface at 2,071 meters, lying on the windward slope of the westerlies — the warm moist air of the Atlantic travels ten thousand li before coming to rest here, hence "the last teardrop of the Atlantic." The blue lake ringed by snow mountains changes with every season: in spring and summer wildflowers bloom into a sea of color along the shore; in winter the blue ice and frozen gas bubbles glitter like crystal.
Sayram Lake fills a fault-block basin, reaching 92 meters at its deepest, fed by snowmelt and glacier water with visibility up to twelve meters. Its color shifts with weather and angle of view: at the center a jewel-blue on clear days, emerald green near the shore — "Sayram blue" has become an obsession among photographers. The ring road runs 92 kilometers, and Dianjiangtai (the "Muster Platform") is said to be where Genghis Khan's western-bound army once encamped.
The lakeside pastures are traditional rangeland; each summer the Nadam fair is held here, with horse racing, wrestling and the "girl chase" taking turns in the arena. The lake once held no fish at all — beginning in 1998, cold-water species such as the whitefish were introduced from Russia, and the lake is now Xinjiang's premier cold-water fishery, "the first lake of alpine cold-water fish."
四山吞浩淼，一碧拭空明。 — Four mountains swallow the boundless waters; a sweep of blue polishes the bright sky.—— Lin Zexu (Qing dynasty), passing Sayram Lake
From December to April the lake freezes over: shards of blue ice pile along the shore like colored glass, and methane bubbles frozen mid-rise in the ice form the marvel of "ice bubbles." At sunrise the dawn paints the ice gold and crimson against the snow mountains — through all four seasons, Sayram never disappoints.