Qarhan Salt Lake


Qarhan Salt Lake in the west of Qinghai Province, China. It is a salt lake and located in the south of Qaidam Basin and lies across Golmud City and Dulan County. It is formed by Dabousun Lake, South Hobousun, North Hobousun, Shibunie and also some other salt ponds, with a total area of 5,856 square kilometers.  Due to the continuous evaporation of water, a hard salt cap is formed on the salt lake, Qinghai-Tibet Railway and Qinghai-Tibet highway are directly built on the salt cap, Qarhan Salt Lake is rich in sodium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride and other inorganic salts, the total reserves of more than 2 billion tons, as one of China's mining bases.  

 

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What to Visit in the Qarhan Salt Lake

Geographic position 

Qarhan Salt Lake is a salt lake in the west of Qinghai Province, China. It is located in the south of Qaidam Basin and lies across Golmud City and Dulan County. It is formed by Dabousun Lake, South Hobousun, North Hobousun, Shibunie and some other salt ponds, with a total area of 5,856 square kilometers.  Qarhan Salt Lake is the largest salt lake in China and one of the most famous inland salt lakes in the world, is traversed by the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The salt lake is more than 160 kilometers long from east to west and 20-40 kilometers wide from north to south. The salt layer is about 2-20 meters thick and covers an area of 5,800 square kilometers with an elevation of 2,670 meters. The lake holds more than 50 billion tons of sodium chloride, enough to feed 6 billion people in the world for 1,000 years.  Rich in mineral resources.  The salt Lake is located in the desert ocean, where the climate is hot and dry, the sunshine time is long, the evaporation of water is much higher than the precipitation.  

The Qaidam Basin, located between the Kunlun and Qilian Mountains, is famous at home and abroad as a "cornucopia" of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the Qarhan is also famous as the heart of the Qaidam Basin(the heart of the Qaidam Basin is the famous Qarhan.Qarhan Salt Lake is one of the largest natural salt lakes in the world.The rich salt mineral resources and the strange 32-kilometer-long "ten-thousand-foot salt bridge" have made it famous for more than half a century.Due to the continuous evaporation of water, a hard salt cap is formed on the salt lake, Qinghai-Tibet Railway and Qinghai-Tibet highway are directly built on the salt cap, Qarhan Salt Lake is rich in sodium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride and other inorganic salts, the total reserves of more than 2 billion tons,as one of China's mining bases.

 

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Geographical features    

The lowest point of Qarhan Salt Lake is more than 2,200 meters above sea level. It is formed by four salt lakes, namely Dabson, South Hobson, North Hobson and Shibunie.More than 10 inland rivers, such as Golmud River and Sulin Guolla River, were injected.The landscape around the salt Lake is flat and boundless, but the scenery is strange.The whole lake seems to be a piece of fertile soil just cultivated,and like fish scales, layer by layer, wave by wave.Unfortunately,there was no grass on the land, no fish in the lake,no birds in the sky,and silence.  

The salt cap is so powerful that the famous Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the Dunge Highway and The Largest potash plant in China,The Qarhan Potash Fertilizer Plant, were built on top of the Lake. The Qinghai-Tibet Highway and the Qinghai-Tibet Railway pass through the salt Lake. The roadbed is all made of salt.They are 32 kilometers long and called the Ten-thousand-foot Salt Bridge and the Steel Rainbow respectively.

 

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Tourism scenery  

It is difficult for all green plants to grow in Qarhan Salt Lake, but it gives birth to the magic salt flowers like jade and ever-changing.  Salt flower is the name of the beautiful shape of salt crystals formed in the Qarhan Salt Lake salt mine.In the crystallization process of brine, due to different concentrations,different duration,different composition and other reasons, the formation of different forms of salt flowers, uncanny workmanship.Here the salt flowers or shape like pearls, corals, or like pavilions, or like birds and animals, a cluster, a cluster of trees, standing in the salt lake,the salt lake is decorated as beautiful as fairyland. Every year, tens of thousands of tourists from home and abroad come to see the wonders of salt flowers.  

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Wanzhang Salt Bridge(Ten-thousand-foot Salt Bridge ) is a highway from Golmud to Dunhuang crossing Dabusun Lake. The salt cover with a thickness of 15-18 meters forms a natural salt bridge. The total length of the bridge is 32 kilometers, which can reach 10 thousand zhang.The smooth and smooth road on the bridge, the scenery of the mountains and lakes, is so beautiful that it can be called "unparalleled in the world".Jade belt like salt bridge (road), beside no guardrail, no pier, no water. The whole road is smooth and smooth, flat and straight. The salt bridge (road) splits the salt lake in two from the middle. People are so amazed that they have to succumb to the wisdom and wisdom of human beings.  

 


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