Basin countries China Area 1,865 km² Width 22.8 km | Surface area 1,865 km (720 sq mi) Length 72 km | |
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Location Nagqu Prefecture, Tibet, China | ||
Siling Lake (Chinese: 色林错; pinyin: Sèlín Cuò; Tibetan: སེར་གླིང་མཚོ, ZYPY: Sêling Co), is a lake in the Tibet Autonomous Region, to the north of Xainza. Doijiang is located near the lake. Administratively it belongs to Xainza County and Baingoin County of the Nagqu Prefecture.
Map of Siling Co, Xainza, Nagqu, China
The lake lies at an altitude of 4530 meters. It is a salt lake. It is fed by the rivers Za'gya Zangbo (or Tsagya Tsangpo) (扎加藏布) and the Boques Tsangpo (波曲藏布). With an area of 1865 square kilometers, Siling Co is the second largest saltwater lake in the northern Tibetan Plateau and forms part of the Siling Co National Nature Reserve (also Selincuo Reserve or Xainza Nature Reserve). The 400,000 hectare reserve was established in 1993 and contains significant populations of black-necked cranes and some 120 species of birds in total. The lake itself, however, only has a single species, Gymnocypris selincuoensis, exploited by fishermen. The prairie on the banks of the lake is traditionally used as grazing land for yaks and sheep.
The temperature at the lake is an annual average of -3 to -0.6 °C, the maximum annual temperature 9.4 °C. The average rainfall is 290 millimeters per year, 90 percent of which falls in the months of June to September, often in the summer as hail.