Qinghai Lake was called Qianghai, Xianhai or Freshwater Sea in ancient times, also known as the West Sea. Tibetan means "Cuobo", Mongolian means "Kukunod" and Chinese means "Blue Sea". Qinghai Lake is the largest inland lake and the largest saltwater lake in China. It is a huge treasure mirror given by nature to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Some people say that Qinghai Lake is a tear lying on the surface of the earth.
Qinghai Lake covers an area of 4,588 square kilometers, which is more than twice that of the famous Taihu Lake. The lake is 109 km long from east to west, 65 km wide from north to south and 360 km around the lake. Qinghai Lake is 3260 meters above sea level, with an average horizontal depth of about 2 1 m, a maximum water depth of 32.8 meters and a storage capacity of/kloc-0.05 billion cubic meters. In 2005, Qinghai Lake was named "the most beautiful five lakes in China" by chinese national geography magazine.
The recharge source of Qinghai Lake is river water, followed by spring water and precipitation at the bottom of the lake. There are more than 70 rivers around the lake, which are obviously asymmetrical. There are many rivers in Hubei, northwest and southwest, with large basin area and many tributaries; There are few rivers and small watersheds in the southeast and south bank of the lake.
There are more than 40 rivers in Qinghai Lake, mainly including Buha River, Liusha River, Uhalan River and Hargeer River. The annual runoff of these four rivers reaches1610.2 billion cubic meters, accounting for 86% of the runoff into the lake.