Hala Lake is the second largest lake in Qinghai, and it is also a little-known plateau saltwater lake hidden in the hinterland of Qilian Mountain. Located 300 kilometers northeast of Golmud, Qinghai Province, northeast of Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, between Tianjun County and Delingha City, 38 18N, 9735E, with an altitude of 4078 meters.
Hala Lake, also known as the Black Sea, has a lake area of 593 square kilometers and an elevation of 4,077 meters, which is a salt lake. Hala Lake is a large saltwater lake in the inland basin on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The lake is supplied with water by many small rivers that originate from the surrounding mountainous areas with a peak of 5,600 meters. Most of the rivers originate from alpine glaciers, and the glaciers are mainly replenished with meltwater.
The whole Qilian mountain area can be used by nomads in summer, except for a small number of water plants in the valley, and the rest areas can not be used by human beings at present. Hala Lake is a place with abundant aquatic plants in the hinterland of Qilian Mountain. Hala Lake River Basin covers an area of nearly 4,800 square kilometers, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and glaciers, with a glacier area of 89 square kilometers, a glacier reserve of about 5 billion cubic meters, an annual glacier melt water of 65 million cubic meters and an annual precipitation of more than 200 millimeters. The rivers in the basin are short and mostly seasonal rivers. The main rivers are 16, of which the largest river is the Ogutur Ulan Gole River.
The main vegetation in Hala Lake is Achnatherum splendens, Artemisia scoparia, Stipa altaica, Agropyron cristatum, Salsola xylocarpa, Claw of Lihaiyan Sea Salt, and Cynanchum japonicum. It is an important breeding ground for wetland birds, such as geese, ducks, snipes and gulls, and there are a large number of yellow croaker living in the lake.
Tuanjie Peak, which is 5826 meters above sea level on the north side of Hala Lake, is the main peak of Qilian Mountain range and the highest peak on the border between Gansu and Qinghai provinces. Locals call it "Zaiwu Jiele" or "Gangwu Jiele". Located in the southeast section of Shule Nanshan, at 383 1 N and 9746 E, it is the highest point of the watershed between the upper valley of Shule River and Hala Lake Basin. The surface is widely covered with ice and snow, and the snow line is as high as 4400 meters, with a large area of modern glaciers.