Lake · China
Ulungur Lake
Ulungur Lake is a large freshwater lake in the north of Xinjiang, in north-western China. It is one of China's ten largest freshwater lakes, and in winter fishers cut holes in the ice to catch fish.
Picture credit: B_Aichner (CC BY-SA 4.0) · 罗布泊 (CC BY 3.0) · HaziiDozen (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Ulungur Lake?
Countries on its shores: China.
Middle of the lake: 47.25° N, 87.25° E
The story behind it
Ulungur Lake is really two lakes joined together: the big main lake, also called Buluntuo Lake, and the smaller Jili Lake. A narrow channel connects them. The water comes from the Ulungur River, and no river flows out of the lake. For many years farmers took so much river water for their fields that the lake level sank by 4.2 metres. Then people dug a canal that brings water from the Irtysh River, and the lake filled up to its old level again. Ulungur Lake is one of the two most important fishing lakes in Xinjiang, together with Bosten Lake. Fishers catch bream, Siberian dace and European perch, and in 1971 they caught a record 4 500 tonnes of fish. In summer people come to its beaches in the north and south-east to swim and do water sports, and in winter they go ice fishing.
Find it on the globe
Ulungur Lake is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big is Ulungur Lake?
Together with the smaller Jili Lake, Ulungur Lake covers about 1 035 km². Some sources give a smaller figure of about 830 km², so the numbers differ depending on what is counted.
Why did the water level of Ulungur Lake sink?
Farmers used more and more water from the Ulungur River for their fields, so less water reached the lake, and its level sank by 4.2 metres. A canal from the Irtysh River now brings extra water, and the lake has filled up again.
What can people do at Ulungur Lake?
In summer people swim and do water sports at its beaches. In winter the lake freezes, and people go ice fishing through holes in the ice.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
Last checked: