Background

Tianchi (Heavenly lake) is located on the halfway up the Peak Bogeda of Mount Tianshan in Fukang city, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. A renowned scenic spot, Tianchi, also called Jasper Lake in the ancient times, was the place where Emperor Zhoumu and the Queen Mother of the West held court feasts, according to "Life story of Emperor Zhou".

The highest point of the folded Bogeda Peak, one of the youngest peaks in the world, is 5,445 meters above sea level. It is one of the 10 perilous peaks China has opened up to foreigners. There are 54 modern glaciers on the peak, whose water capacity 1.64 billion cubic meters. They are the main water sources for the Tianchi.

With water storage capacity of 160 million cubic meters, the 4.9-spuate-meter Tianchi, 90 meters deep, extends about 3.3 kilometres from south to north, and one kilometre or so from east to west. The surface of the lake is 1980 meters in average above sea level. The Tianchi is a moraine lake formed more than 2 million years ago when the Quartenary Period glaciers were active. The thawed snow from the mountains gathered in the lake and the green water shimmers in the soft breeze and warm sunshine and now is very clean. Tianchi is embraced by snowy mountains which are covered by towering dragon spruces. Falling from a northeast cliff, Tianchi water forms a waterfall, which through erosion, has created a pool below-called East Little Tianchi. The East Little Tianchi was once very large, but now shrank due to the blocking of the alluvial soil. Tianchi water flows to Sangong River.

Mount Tianshan and Tianchi are also abundant in forest and animal resources. Apart from the dragon spruces, condense-leaf poplars and birches, there are extensively-spread medicinal herbs or edible plants, including dangshen (Codonopsis pilosula), Radix astragal, fritillary, radix bupleuri and mayberry. The animals here include red deer, argali, Beishan sheep, snow leopard, stone marten, Lynx, snow weasel, snow chicken, Tianshan deer, bighorn sheep, Tianshan antelope and roe deer.

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