atChaka Salt Lake near the town Chaka in Wulan county is one of the most beautiful lakes of the Qaidam Basin in Northwest China’s Qinghai province. Chaka is actually a large salt flat, about 9 km long and 15 km wide, covered with a thick crust of salt. During the dry seasons, the lake remains much smaller in size. Only when it rains, the lake extends to its full size.

The lake is very shallow —at places, it is only ankle-deep— that allows visitors to walk over the lake. At times, when the sky is looking brilliant, the crystal blue water of the lake reflects the azure sky as if a giant mirror is resting on the ground. This has earned Chaka Salt Lake the nickname of ‘Mirror of the Sky’. In this regard, Chaka Salt Lake is like the smaller cousin of Bolivia’s famous Salar de Uyuni.