Barkol Lake

Barkol Lake

Balikun lake, formerly known as PU Lei Hai, is located 18 kilometers northwest of Balikun County in Xinjiang. It is a plateau lake with an altitude of 1585 meters. It is surrounded by undulating mountains, beautiful water and grass, and rippling blue waves in the lake. Unique "Mirage cover mountains" spectacle.

For many years, the ecological and environmental problems of Balikun lake have gradually deteriorated, and the lake area has shrunk. Through a series of policies of the local government, it has been gradually controlled.

brief introduction

In midsummer, the scenery of lakes and mountains is particularly charming. Herdsmen are nomadic by the lake, yurt seats, flocks of cattle and sheep, and pastoral songs are melodious. It is a good place for summer tourism. Balikun lake is formed by the confluence of natural springs around. It is about 12 km wide from east to west and 20 km long from north to south. The lake covers an area of 112.15 square kilometers. The lake is also rich in Glauber's salt mine and salt field. The lake water contains aquatic Artemia (Artemia annua). In ancient times, the lake was called Pu Lei Hai, Poxi Hai, balkule Nur in Yuan Dynasty, and Balikun Lake in Mongolian sand and balkul in Qing Dynasty.

Balikun lake is slightly oval, about 9 kilometers wide from east to west, 13 kilometers long from north to south, with an area of 113 square kilometers and an altitude of 1585 meters. It is surrounded by undulating mountains, beautiful water and grass, rippling in the lake, rippling in the East Lake, silvery in the West Lake, large marshes and wetlands in the east of the lake, and vast pastures around the lake. Unique "Mirage cover mountains" spectacle. In midsummer, the scenery of lakes and mountains is particularly charming. Herdsmen are nomadic by the lake, yurt seats, flocks of cattle and sheep, and pastoral songs are melodious. It is a good place for summer tourism. Balikun lake has a beautiful legend of "Han Gu spring" and "Pu Lei Hai". In midsummer, the tents are full of cattle, sheep, carrots and horses, and the scenery of lakes and mountains is particularly charming. Kazakh herdsmen often hold grand "aken playing and singing meeting" in Lakeside grassland.

Balikun lake is formed by the confluence and injection of natural springs around, with an area of 112.15 square kilometers. The lake is also rich in Glauber's salt mine and salt field. The lake water contains aquatic Artemia (Artemia annua).

legend

There are many beautiful legends about Balikun lake. The most popular one is that a Han girl and a Kazakh youth named Pu Lei Hai fought together with the mountain devil who destroyed the lake. The girl was petrified under the Jianshan mountain, and the Kazakh youth seized the mountain devil and sank to the bottom of the lake. They exchange their lives for a peaceful and happy life for future generations. In memory of them, people call the Qingquan at the foot of Jianshan "Hangu spring" and the lake "Pu Lei Hai". Hangu spring is an excellent raw material for the production of mineral water. Now it has established a joint venture with Hong Kong businessmen to build a mineral water plant. It is said that this attic in Balikun county was built to commemorate fan Lihua's expedition to the West. From summer to autumn, hundreds of yurts are gathered on the Bank of Balikun lake for herdsmen to work and rest while grazing.

protect

Balikun lake is known as "Pu Lei Hai" in historical records. It is said that this "Hai" located at the northern foot of East Tianshan Mountain has an area of more than 800 square kilometers when it was the largest. With the decrease of rainfall and the influence of human activities, the water area of Barkol lake had shrunk to 140 square kilometers in the 1980s. However, this is not the worst. In 2006, the latest statistics showed that the water surface of Lake Barkol was further reduced to 37 square kilometers. So some people wonder: with this rate of decline, will the Barkol Lake completely dry up in the near future?

In fact, over the years, the shrinking of Barkol lake has caused adverse effects on the ecological environment around the lake: the microclimate of the lake area has become dry, the grassland around the lake basin has become more and more serious, and the degraded area of Barkol Lake Wetland grassland with a total area of 1.34 million mu is about 70%.

Lake Barkol can no longer be allowed to shrink. In 2004, Balikun county government submitted to the autonomous region a report on the establishment of "Balikun Lake wetland ecological function reserve". The following year, the people's Government of the autonomous region listed Balikun Lake as "an important area in the ecological function zone of the East Tianshan Mountains". In 2006, Balikun issued the "Interim Measures for the protection and management of ecological functions of Balikun Lake", which included 1.34 million mu of wetland in the lake area.

Wang Youde, director of Barkol Environmental Protection Bureau, said: the county's protection measures for Barkol Lake include zero development of the land around the wetland, and standardizing the upstream well drilling, pond dam repairing and other behaviors that may affect the flow of glacial water into the lake area. The protection of vegetation around the lake area has also been strengthened. For example, the county built a fence in shirenzi township to protect Nitraria and other primitive vegetation. Another example is the ten thousand mu ecological forest project on the south hillside of Barkol City, which was launched in the autumn of 2005. It can also effectively reduce soil erosion. In 2006, the county also completed the ten thousand mu wetland irrigation project around Balikun lake.

A series of measures to replenish water to Barkol lake are also being gradually implemented. In March 2007, liutiaohe large-scale irrigation area reconstruction project was launched in the county. The first phase includes 60 km anti-seepage canal and several high-tech water-saving projects. According to the unified arrangement of the county water conservancy department, the surplus water from Liutiao river will be directly supplied to Balikun lake.

The groundwater level in Dahe Town is high and the land salinization is serious. Drilling wells can not only reduce the groundwater level, but also save more spring water flowing into Balikun lake. In addition, xiheigou has an annual runoff of 23 million cubic meters. In addition to meeting the production needs of agriculture and animal husbandry in the basin, a large amount of surplus water can be injected into Balikun Lake through existing channels. These two water supply schemes are expected to be implemented in the near future.

Address: 18 km northwest of Barkol Kazak Autonomous County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Longitude: 92.793309800132

Latitude: 43.603997526307

Chinese PinYin : Ba Li Kun Hu