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Explore the region
About Dali Lake
Dali Lake (达里湖), also called Dali Nur (达里诺尔湖), is a saline lake with no outlet in Hexigten Banner (克什克腾旗), Chifeng (赤峰), Inner Mongolia. It is one of the nine park areas of the Hexigten Global Geopark (克什克腾世界地质公园).
It is a lava-dammed lake (熔岩堰塞湖) and lies at about 1,226 m above sea level, between the Hunshandake sandy land (浑善达克沙地) on its southern side, the Gongger grassland (贡格尔草原) to the east and the Xilingol grassland (锡林郭勒草原) to the west. Older names include Yu'erluo (鱼儿泺) and Da'er Haizi (答儿海子). Four rivers feed it, the Gongger River (贡格尔河) carrying the most water, along with the Shali (沙里河), Liangzi (亮子河) and Haolai (浩来河). With no outflow, its volume depends on precipitation, river inflow and evaporation.
The average yearly temperature is about 1.4°C, and ice usually covers the lake from mid-November to early April, on average more than 0.7 m thick. About 450 mm of precipitation falls each year, over 70% of it in summer, while evaporation exceeds 1,400 mm. Measured from 1991 to 2013, the water area shrank from 223.50 km² to 195.84 km², a decline linked to climate change and human activity.
The Hexigten Banner government calls the lake a "paradise of a hundred birds" (百鸟乐园), records 297 bird species from 48 families and 18 orders, and ranks it the second-largest inland lake in Inner Mongolia. Tens of thousands of swans stop here every spring and autumn. Summer birds include wild ducks, geese, gulls, white-naped cranes and red-crowned cranes, and the water holds Amur ide (雅罗鱼), crucian carp and common carp. The scenic area is rated national AAAA.
What to look for
- Swans on the lake in spring and autumn, when tens of thousands arrive
- Summer waterbirds, including white-naped and red-crowned cranes
- Zhenzi Mountain (砧子山), formed by an ancient volcanic eruption
- The ruins of Yingchang Lu (应昌路遗址), a Yuan-dynasty site listed by the banner government as a late Yuan capital
- The Jin-dynasty Great Wall (金长城) and Mantuo Mountain (曼陀山), both listed among the scenic area's sights
Location & getting there
Getting to Dali Lake
- Search for 达里湖 with 赤峰市 and 克什克腾旗.
Find Dali Lake
达里湖 · 克什克腾旗
No reliable map pin yet: search by the Chinese name.
Sources & visit information
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Opening hours, admission and access arrangements are not covered; confirm current visitor information with the site.
Some facts checked against Wikipedia contributors, "达里湖" · CC BY-SA 4.0.