Beautiful legends like this one made the Qinghai Lake sacred in the eyes of emperors. According to historical documents. Many emperors, starting with Tang Dynasty rulers, came here to offer sacrifices and erect memorial tablets to show their respect for the lake. In the eighth century, the Tang Emperor Xuanzong gave the god of the lake the title "Duke of Guangrun" and formally named the water Qinghai Lake. Lake worship ceremonies became regular and elaborate established events during the Qing Dynasty(1 644-1911), ceremonies used to be conducted at remote locations began to be held at the lakeside.

People believed that the l 8th day of the 7th lunar month was the birthday of stern Queen Mother, which became the official day for the services, as ceremonies had been held on this day ever since the time of the Tang Emperor Xuanzon9. During the Republican period (1911-1949), senior political and military figures such as the Kuomintang prime minister T.V. Soong and the northwest warlord Ma Bufang officiated at memorial services to worship the lake. Now the ceremony has returned, but as a folk cultural activity.

The legends are beautiful to be sure, but the facts, as we all know, are that the Qinghai Lake is China's largest inland lake and its largest salt water lake. It was created, some 40 million years ago, as a result of the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates and the lifting of the Himalayan Sea to create the mountain chain. Geological studies show that rivers used to empty into the 1ake and then drained out into the ancient course of the Yellow River in the southeast. Later, continued movement of the earth's crest saw the rising of the landmass east of the lake which blocked the flow of the lake water, creating a drainless lake which only received water but had no outflow.

Being 3,260 meters above sea level, and with a circumference of 360 kilometers, the lake has a water area of 4, 340 square kilometers and contains 77. 8 billion cubic meters of water, it is encircled by mountains on all sides the Datong Mountain in the north, the South Qinghai Mountain in the south, the Xiangpi Mountain in the west and the Sun and Moon Mountain in the east. The east-west flowing Daotang River empties into the lake. People who have never been there often imagine that its water is blue, but come close, you'll discover that the lake water is by no means a single color-at different times of day, during different seasons, and when viewed from different angles, its waters appear in different colors-light green, blue, green gray, orange, yellow... So wide a range of different colors in a single lake casts light on why it was referred to as the "Fairy Sea" during the Han Dynasty(206BC¡ªAD 220)some two thousand years ago and why it was described as "a scene that rightly belongs in Heaven."

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