Chaiwopu Lake () is a freshwater

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

Urumqi, the Capital of Xinjiang-II
/ref> located in Dabancheng District, some 45 km southeast of

Ürümqi Ürümqi, , is the capital of the Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwestern China. With a census population of 4 million in 2020, Ürümqi is the second-largest city in China's northwestern interior after Xi'an, also the ...

, in

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The lake receives water from several streams from the

Bogda Shan The Bogda Shan (; zh, s=博格达山, t=博格達山, p=Bógédá shān) range is part of the Eastern Tian Shan mountains and located in Xinjiang, some 60 km east of Ürümqi Ürümqi, , is the capital of the Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uy ...

range. The lake is almost round, some 5–6 km in diameter, which makes it the largest freshwater lake in the Ürümqi region. Chaiwopu

Township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

, Chaiwopu Railway Station on the Lanxin Railway, and

China National Highway 312 China National Highway 312 (312国道), also referred to as Route 312, is a key east-west route beginning in Shanghai and ending at Khorgas, Xinjiang in the Ili River valley, on the border with Kazakhstan. In total it spans , passing through Ji ...

are located near the northern and northeastern shore of the lake. Local media has referred to Chaiwopu Lake as "charming and beautiful". The lake and its surroundings are officially protected as Ürümqi Chaiwopuhu National Wetland Park (乌鲁木齐柴窝堡湖国家湿地公园). The name of the lake (and of the eponymous

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

) is occasionally written as Chaiwobao.E.g., on Google Maps as of 2010-05-01 This is probably a misspelling: although the Chinese character 堡 has two readings, "bao" and "pu", it is the latter reading that, according to dictionaries, is normally used in place names.

References

Lakes of Xinjiang Nature reserves in China Ürümqi {{Xinjiang-geo-stub