Kanas Lake

Kanas means “beautiful, abundant and mysterious” in Mongolian language. It is located 150 km north of Burqin county of Altay in northern Xinjiang. It is considered as one of the 5 most beautiful lakes in China.

It is situated in deep forest of Altay Mountain, which is the one of the three mountains in Xinjiang. The lake is 1,374 meters above the sea level. The lakes biggest depth is 188.5 meters and average depth is 120 meters. It is length from north to south is 24.5 km and average width is 1.9 km, and total covered an area of 44.78 square km.

Kanas Lake beauty is made up of river, lake, glacier, forest and pastureland. The lake area is covered with dense forest. July and August is considered special time for the lake because at that time, the Mongol and Kazakh people celebrates their Nadam festival which gives travellors good opportunity to experience their culture and custom. They also have special sheep tussling sport.

The Crouching Dragon Bay and Moon Bay are two must see places along the river flowing into the Kanas Lake. Crouching Dragon Bay looks like cauldron, and local people called it Cauldron bottom Lake by the local people.

Kanas Lake is the natural reserve; it is the home to Kazak and Tuwa people. They have preserved their agricultural and nomadic life style.

Monster in the  Kanas Lake – According to the legend, there is a huge monster living in the lake which eats away the cow, horse, yak which are drinking water at the lake.

Recent years, tourist captured some video where the monster creature moving around in the lake. This footage was also featured in CCTV 10.

Fishing Pavilion is the best spot to watch the lake monster. It is located on top of Halakaite Mountain which is located next to Kanas Lake. From where you watch the scenery of the lake. Fairy Bay and Wolong Bay are also visible.