(CNN) — Xiechi Lake, also called Yuncheng Salt Lake in China’s Shanxi province, has turn into well-liked on Instagram and different social media web sites in recent times because of eye-popping aerial pictures of its colourful floor.
Now, China needs to transform that on-line recognition into real-life tourism.
First step: promote it to Chinese home vacationers.
Recent tourism campaigns on Chinese social media websites together with Weibo and WeChat confer with Xiechi as “China’s Dead Sea” and tout each its magnificence and its therapeutic properties.
“As the Chinese model of Israel’s Dead Sea, floating right here is an unforgettable expertise, and one you may’t discover anyplace else,” reads a tourism advert sponsored by the appropriately named Yuncheng Salt Lake (China’s Dead Sea) Tourism Development Co. LTD.
One accolade stands out as an indication of the lake’s endorsement on the highest ranges: Xiechi Lake was featured in a 2019 Chinese TV particular celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Salt crystals type on the highest of Xiechi Lake.
Alamy
How the surprise was shaped
There are three sorts of salt lakes on the earth: carbonate, chloride and sulfate. The Dead Sea and the Great Salt Lake in Utah are each chloride lakes. Yuncheng, nonetheless, falls into the final group.
“If the sulfate in your water is larger than the calcium, all of the calcium is used up, which leaves you with an extra of sulfate and you’ve got a sulfate lake,” explains Hong Kong Baptist University geography professor Bernie Owen.
Xiechi can be a “closed basin” lake — which means it would not stream out to a river or ocean — which explains how its salt content material stays so excessive.
“Water is available in with salt, water escapes, salt stays behind, extra water is available in with salt, evaporation. Salt stays behind,” Owen explains. “There’s no outlet on this one. It will simply step by step turn into saltier and saltier and saltier.”
But what about these attractive colours which have made the lake so well-liked with photographers? They must do with the species of animals and crops dwelling within the water.
“when you’ve acquired brine shrimps, you are inclined to get purple colours,” says Owen. “There’s a microscopic animal referred to as a rotifer, and that can give a purple colour. Purples you (additionally) are inclined to get with inexperienced algae. And then greens or oranges (happen) in very saline lakes.”
It is feasible for salt lakes to freeze over, though not as rapidly as different lakes — in any case, take into consideration what occurs once we unfold salt over icy roads. Saltwater freezes at decrease temperatures than freshwater.
An aerial view of Xiechi Lake
Xue Jun/Alamy
A lake turns into a star
In an effort to spice up Xiechi Lake’s worldwide profile, China is reportedly taking steps to get it listed as a UNESCO World Heritage website.
In a 2019 WeChat publish, Luo Huining, celebration secretary of Shanxi Province, introduced that native officers had begun the appliance course of.
“Yuncheng Salt Lake is the crystallization of Chinese tradition and civilization. The salt lake has constructive significance for selling our cultural confidence and heritage,” he mentioned on the time.
China has closely targeted on UNESCO bids, which may be costly and time-consuming, as a solution to confer worldwide legitimacy on its many historic and pure wonders.
Currently, China has 56 such World Heritage websites, inserting it second solely to Italy on the overall checklist. That feat is much more spectacular contemplating that the nation’s first crop of UNESCO designations — which included the Great Wall and Forbidden City — solely got here in 1987.
Two extra such recognitions would tie China with Italy for the highest spot on the UNESCO checklist.
There’s some excellent news for wannabe vacationers who hope to go to Xiechi Lake — it is not but as well-liked or crowded as different vacationer spots in China.
Tiger Li of journey firm Diverse China tells CNN that he has solely organized just a few visits there. Nearly all of the guests to this point have been Chinese home vacationers.
That is prone to stay unchanged so long as China stays principally closed to worldwide tourism. The nation closed its borders in early 2020 and stays one of many few locations on the earth nonetheless adhering to a “zero Covid” technique that features very strict quarantine insurance policies.
“Besides the surroundings, I feel the mud bathtub and different experiences are the important thing purpose they go (to Xiechi Lake),” Li says.
According to an announcement from the Yuncheng metropolis authorities, Xiechi Lake incorporates black mud with restorative and therapeutic properties — identical to the Dead Sea.
The doc goes on to assert that folks can float alongside the floor of the water with out sinking — additionally, coincidentally, identical to the Dead Sea.