Kanas Lake is located in the pristine forests of the Altai Mountains region in northern Xinjiang. In the local minority languages, Kanas means beautiful and affluent, mysterious and peculiar. Shaped like a long loofah, Kanas is 25 kilometers long from north to south and about 2.5 kilometers wide from east to west, with the deepest part of the lake reaching 188 meters, and its altitude is 2,370 meters. As the climate and seasons change, the lake water also shows different colors such as red, blue, green and white, which is colorful and varied. Therefore, Kanas Lake is also known as the Lake of Changing Colors.
For thousands of years, the Kanas Lake area has been circulating a legend of the Kanas Lake Monster. It is said that livestock such as cows and horses are often dragged away by the "water monster" for no apparent reason. Sometimes a group of horses or cattle, only to see them towards the lake to drink water footprints, not long but disappeared; sometimes people rowed a boat to the lake, the wind and waves but do not see the return.
Legends like these in the lake area there are many. It is said that the Kanas Lake monster is huge, erratic, a mouth can swallow a calf. It often sneaks up on the lake and devours cows and horses. To 1931, a herdsman is grazing by the lake, suddenly heard the lake issued a "rumbling" sound. Herdsman was shocked, busy eyes to the lake to look, just now also calm on the lake suddenly set off a huge wave, waves flying tumbling, in the sunlight glittering with blinding red light. Only to see a dozen huge red fish-shaped monsters in the water tossing and jumping, stirring up the lake water surging, very majestic and spectacular.
In 2003, the "9.27" earthquake, so that the silence of the Kanas "lake monster" seminar heat wave again. At that time, the lake is checking the tourism safety work of the local officials in Kanas witnessed two huge black objects out of the water up to more than 20 meters, and soon submerged in the water. Several tourists who were sightseeing also found the same phenomenon. Is there really a "lake monster" in Kanas Lake? Is it really a "lake monster" that leaps out of the lake?
In order to solve this problem, let's look at the history of the discovery of the "lake monster".
In 1980, the relevant units in Xinjiang organized an expedition to the Kanas Lake Nature Reserve composed of scientific and technical personnel, and began a two-month scientific investigation of the natural environment, flora and fauna of Kanas Lake and its vicinity. The team learned in detail about the various rumors about the Kanas Lake Monster and found complete skeletons of cattle, horses, sheep and other animals in the shallow waters along the lake. After research, it was concluded that this is indeed not the land of man and beast, may really be a monster in the lake to do murder.
In July 1985, Xinjiang University Biology Department director Xiang Lixinou and Xinjiang Environmental Protection Research Institute researcher Yuan Guoying each led an expedition to the Kanas Lake area, the comprehensive investigation of Kanas Lake.
New Xiang Li carried a high-powered binoculars, every day from morning to night quietly stood at the edge of the lake, staring into the lake. On the morning of July 20, Prof. Xiang was enjoying the beauty of nature on a mountain peak near the lake with his team when he noticed something slightly red in the lake. At first, they thought it was water plants or driftwood, then Prof. Xiang realized that these red things were flowing, and as he looked closely through the binoculars, he couldn't help but shout, "Ah, it's a fish, it's a 'big red fish'!" As the big red fish slowly floated, its head and tail fins were revealed from time to time. The head of the fish is about as thick as the crown of a spruce tree on the shore, about 1 meter in diameter, or as big as a Beijing 212 jeep, showing a fiery red color like a chicken crown. The huge mouth opens and closes, spitting out the water to form a semicircular ripple. There was a red line on the spine that was 5 meters long. People who were on the mountain at the time saw the big fish.
When Professor Xiang described the discovery of the "big red fish" to researcher Yuan Guoying of the Xinjiang Institute of Environmental Research, Yuan Guoying didn't believe it, and on July 24, he also ran to the lake and actually saw the "big red fish".
Yuan Guoying, explaining what happened that day, said the biggest fish he saw that day was estimated to be more than 10 meters. Thinking of the stories people tell about the "big red fish" and the fact that the other seven species of fish found here are not big enough, they believe that the so-called "lake monster" is the Cherokee salmon!