Qinggeda Lake 青格达湖

About Qinggeda Lake

Qinggeda Lake (青格达湖), also called Mengjin Reservoir (猛进水库), is a man-made lake and wetland reserve on the southern side of Wujiaqu (五家渠), the city run by the Sixth Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (新疆生产建设兵团第六师), about 3 km from the city centre. It sits between Urumqi (乌鲁木齐) and the Gurbantünggüt Desert (古尔班通古特沙漠).

The lake occupies a hollow in the spring belt of the alluvial plain formed by the Urumqi River (乌鲁木齐河) and the Toutun River (头屯河), where spring water of the Laolong River (老龙河), known in Urumqi as the Shuimo River (水磨河), collects. It is the terminal lake of these rivers. The water surface covers 17 km² with about 20 km of shoreline and an average depth of over 4.7 m. Rain here amounts to only 150–200 mm a year against 2,000–2,500 mm of evaporation; by catching wind-blown sand from the desert the lake earned the nickname "kidney of Urumqi".

Before the reservoir the site was a reedy hollow known as Heilongtan (黑龙潭), "Black Dragon Pool". Soldiers of the 17th Division of the People's Liberation Army's Sixth Army had farmed the area since 1950, and in May 1952 the division decided to build a reservoir here; work began on 18 June. The first phase, finished in the first half of 1953, built a 5 km earth dam with more than 2,200 workers, over 900 of them prisoners. A second phase from June 1955 to April 1956, with a Soviet adviser on the design, raised capacity to 60 million m³. It was then the largest reservoir project in Xinjiang, known as the "first reservoir of the military reclamation" (军垦第一库). It serves mainly for irrigation, feeding Wujiaqu's farmland through the Mengjin trunk canal, and also for flood control.

The Corps approved the Qinggeda Lake Nature Reserve (青格达湖自然保护区) in December 2002, its first provincial-level reserve, to protect the wetland ecosystem and rare birds. The main wetland is an artificial marsh of about 8 km² on the south side, with shallows and reedbeds that are most extensive in the July–August low-water season. Field surveys from 2002 to 2013 recorded 225 bird species, including black stork, great bustard, golden eagle, Pallas's fish eagle and white-tailed eagle, all under first-class national protection. At least three flyways cross the lake, and in a good autumn 40,000 to 60,000 wild birds have been counted. The Qinggeda Lake Tourist Scenic Area, developed on the lake from 1985 by the Sixth Division's water management office, is a national water conservancy scenic area and an AAAA-rated attraction.

What to look for

• The southern artificial wetland, about 8 km² of shallows and reedbeds
• Spring and autumn bird migration, when large numbers of migrants rest at the lake
• Dalmatian pelican, Eurasian spoonbill and whooper swan, among the second-class protected species recorded
• Tamarisk, Euphrates poplar and reeds along the western side of the lake
• The long earth dams of the 1950s Mengjin Reservoir
• Views of Bogda Peak (博格达峰), the highest peak of the eastern Tianshan, beyond the reserve

Location & getting there

Getting to Qinggeda Lake

• Search for 青格达湖 with 新疆生产建设兵团 and 五家渠市（第六师）.