Khanka Lake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Khanka Lake (Russian: о́зеро Ха́нка; Traditional Chinese: 興凱湖; Simplified Chinese: 兴凯湖; pinyin: Xingkai Lake), is a transboundary water body located on the border between Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China and Russia (at ). It is situated 120 km from Jixi. The area of the lake is 4,190 km² of which 3,030 km² are located in Russia, and 1,160 km²—in China. The area around the lake is an important wetland habitat and forms a National Nature Reserve on the Chinese side and the Khanka Lake Nature Reserve on the Russian side. It is a remarkable site for nature protection, eco-tourism as well as scientific research (concerning bird migrations). The lake area located on Chinese territory belongs to the Chinese government and is exploited by collective farms or state farms for fishery, agriculture and livestock raising.
[edit] Physical data
Khanka (Xingkai) Lake is the name given to two lakes separated by a 10 m sandy hill. Lake shores are swampy, except in the north-west.
The lake's drainage basin is an alluvial plain of around 16,890 km², of which 97% is on Russian territory. With 4,000 to 4,400 km² of water plane area, it is the largest water body of Northeast China. It is fed by 23 rivers (8 in China and 15 in Russia), but the only outflow of the lake is the Song’acha River. The lake's average depth is 4.5 m, maximum depth—10.6 m. Its average volume is 18.3 km³, maximum—22.6 km³. The lake belongs to both the Ussuri River System (Wusuli) and the Amur River System (Heilongjiang).
Maximum annual temperature is 21.2°C, minimum is −19.2°C. Rainfall mainly occurs in summer, reaching 750 mm annually. The residence time of Khanka Lake is one year.
[edit] Miscellaneous
In the Neolithic era, there was a well-developed Bohai culture in the area of the Khanka Lake.
