Qinghai Lake
Qinghai Lake (Chinese: 青海湖), Kokonor (Mongolian: Хөх нуур) or Tsongon Po (Tibetan: མཚོ་སྔོན་པོ།) is the largest lake in the People's Republic of China. Located in Qinghai province on an endorheic basin, Qinghai Lake is classified as a saline and alkaline lake. Qinghai Lake has a surface area of 4,317 square kilometres (1,667 sq mi); an average depth of 21 metres (69 ft), and a maximum depth of 25.5 m (84 ft) as measured in 2008. The current Chinese name "Qinghai," the older Mongolian name "Kokonor", and the Tibetan name translate to "Green Sea", "Blue Lake" and "Teal Sea", respectively. Qinghai Lake is located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of the provincial capital of Xining (Tib:Ziling ཟི་ལིང་།) at 3,205 m (10,515 ft) above sea level in a hollow of the Tibetan plateau. Twenty-three rivers and streams empty into Qinghai Lake, most of them seasonal. Five permanent streams provide 80% of total influx.
The lake has fluctuated in size, shrinking over much of the 20th century, but has increased since 2004. There are five native fish species: The edible naked carp (Gymnocypris przewalskii, huángyú; 湟鱼), which is the most abundant in the lake, and four stoneloaches (Triplophysa stolickai, T. dorsonotata, T. scleroptera and T. siluroides). Other Yellow River fish species occurred in the lake, but they disappeared with the increasing salinity and basicity, beginning in the early Holocene, and eventually reaching the current salinity of c. 14 parts per thousand and pH of 9.3. Qinghai Lake became isolated from the Yellow River about 150,000 years ago.
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