Qinghai Lake, "a blue sea" in Mongolian and Tibetan,
is the largest inland salt lake in China with an
area of 4,500sq.km and an altitude of 3,195m , after
which Qinghai Province was named. It is fascinating
in its vast expanse of misty and wavy blue water.
Around the lake is the endless outstretching of grassland and rapes, wheat fields. In the distance, countless sheep, cattle and horses are grazing under the white cloud-dotted blue sky. Still farther away tower the snow-capped mountains.
Qinghai Lake is a beautiful inland alpine lake in Northwest China. Over the centuries, its splendid scenery and rich aquatic resources have attracted millions of tourists and numerous valiant pioneers who admire it for its vastness, splendor and mysteriousness, landing it as a sparkling diamond set in the Qinghai Plateau.
Qinghai Lake is indeed fascinating. With luxuriant water plants and abundant supply of fish, as well as the fertile grassland around it, it used to be a place for which local nationalities contended. Since the Tang Dynasty, China's ruling classes have fought bitter battles for its control with Tubo minorities. The founding of New China gave it a new life. Roaming cattle and sheep, yak of minorities and picturesque grasslands marks today's lakeside. The local Han, Tibetans, Hui (Chinese Muslims), Mongolians, Tu, Salar live here in harmony and make concerted efforts to protect and exploit this big treasure house, striving to make it even more beautiful.
Qinghai Lake is both
a scenic spot with a mysterious coloring and a treasure
house that scientists all over the world are interested
in. With an average depth of 20m, the lake
water contains sodium, potassium, magnesium as well
as scores of salts, which are important materials
for chemical, electronic, optic and pharmaceutical
industries.
the Bird Island on the northwestern bank of the Qinghai Lake The lake also abounds in fish. Qinghai Lake scaleless carp is a special product here. Local people say in midsummer fish like to swim on the water surface, and passersby can catch fish from the lake quite easily.
While boating on the lake, we felt this was quite true. For shoal after shoal of fish swam past our boat, so many sparkling reddish fish that it seemed you had just to extend your arm and a fish was already in your hand .
Every late March, when the ice covering of Qinghai Lake begins to melt and the temperature rises to 5-6 , shoals of scaleless carp move upstream to the rivers that empty into the lake, struggling against the current, they run after each other to reproduce by ovulation and insemination.
Such activities reach their climax in May and June. Near the mouth of the Buha River, sometimes thousands of carps can be seen striving upstream toward the river, churn the water turbulently ,each one fearing to lag behind, while crossing the shallows, the dorsal and caudal fins of many of them protrude above the surface, as if a thousand sailboats are vying in a race.
The scaleless carp
It is a naked carp, with few
scales. It has a body shaped like a spindle, a blunt
but round head, a protruding mouth, no beard, a
grayish or yellowish brown back, a grayish or yellowish
belly, some irregular brown spots on its sides,
grayish or reddish fins, some of them having a yellowish
or dark green body.
In fact , the ancestors of such carp once did have scales, as can be seen from the remaining scales on its shoulder blades and the special scales around the anus.
Some have been caught with scales covering the whole body, a sign of atavism. The degeneration of the carp's scales is an interesting question. The process was like this.
The elevation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and also the emergence of glaciers during Quaternary period (about 1,000,000 years ago) forced the scaled carp ancestors living in these waters to make gradual adaptations to the new environment. The longtime influence of high altitudes, strong radiation, low water temperature and other adverse circumstances led to the thickening of the subcutaneous fat, which strengthened its resistance to cold, and the increase of secretion from its surface mucus glands.
The perfection was favorable for regulating the osmosis pressure, precipitating substances that eroded the body, removing dirt and preventing body humor from coagulation that might lead to death.
All these conditions diminished the protective role of scales and caused them to degenerate. On the other hand, as it had to adapt itself to community cave dwelling, the necessity to curve its body to enter caves or crevices where also conducive to the reduction and degeneration of its scales. Its ancestors?home used to be in the Yellow River, for Qinghai Lake formerly emptied through the Backward-flowing River (Daotanghe River ) southeastward into the Yellow River. But further elevations of the Plateau Raised Mt. Riyue and Tuanbao and blocked the lake’s exit into the Yellow River, turning it into one of interior drainage.
So the fish ancestors had
to settle down here and make gradual changes to
adapt to the constant changes in water and food.
The increase of plankton in the lake led to the
multiplication of its gill teeth, which also played
a role in the gradual development of the present-day
Qinghai Lake carp.
The fish is a delicious dish, rich in nutrients. But its roe, peritoneum and entrails are not fit to eat for containing poisonous substances.
The fish resources available now are estimated as 50,000 tons. But before Liberation in 1949 , they were not exploited because a superstition prevailed here that this fish is regarded as a god. After Liberation fishing industry began its rapid development.
As early as the late 1950s, motor sailboats were used for fishing. Researches on this fish have had fruitful results. In recent years attempts have been made to introduce it to lakes with a colder climate and higher salinity in Inner Mongolia and Liaoning Province.
The result is encouraging: in three years time the fish grew to a weight of 500 grams, which would have taken ten years in Qinghai. This clearly shows that its introduction to other provinces could also be successful. The lake is indeed a warehouse for fish.
In winter, people tell us, when fishing on a moonlit or starry night, you just need to make a hole in the ice, light a bonfire , and schools of fish will automatically jump onto the ice just as moths dart into a flame in summer.
That is the well-known "frozen Qinghai fish". You will be given a warm welcome not only by the lake, but also by the mountains, the prairies and the people of this land.
Sacrificial Offering to the Qinghai Lake (picture from www.gtwork.com)
Sacrificial Offering to the Qinghai
lake is a worshipping ceremony to the “Lake God?
by the people on the shores. It is directed by Ningma
(Red Sect) Buddists. As opinions vary, no unanimous
conclusion can be drawn about the origin of the
ceremony.
However, some historic records tell tat it was originated during the Qing Dynasty by the imperial government so that it could consolidate its rule.
In the 4th year of Yong Zhen (1726), Qing imperial commissioners were sent to the northern shore of the Qinghai Lake to hold a sacrificial ceremony to the lake and to erect a stone tablet there.
Later on , other imperial commissioners came in the 5th lunar month every year to hold the ceremonies. And the nobility were called together from Mongolia to observe the ceremonies and to enter into alliance with the imperial court.
After the Dao Guang years, common Tibetans began to attend the ceremony, which has been going on since then. The present sacrificial offering to Qinghai Lake is held once a year on the 4th day in the 5th lunar month on the northern shore near the Shatuosi Temple.
There are also other activities before and after the ceremony. When the time comes, crowds of people pour from all over the prairies to the shore, and a provisional town of hundreds of tents
Qinghai Lake on map
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