① China’s Uyuni Desert
The Uyuni Desert is the world’s largest salt desert located in Bolivia. Travelers from all over the world are visiting Bolivia to see the Uyuni Desert.
This place appears desert-like due to the crystallization of lake salts on the lake surface over a long period. A vast white landscape greets you. The Uyuni Desert is a place many travelers list as a must-visit before they die. Thanks to the unbelievable landscape, it feels like a dreamy place.
Bolivia is a very distant destination. If departing from Incheon International Airport, you must transfer at least three times. Upon arrival in Bolivia, you can take a plane, train, or night bus to reach the Uyuni Desert. It takes more than 24 hours just for the flight and incurs many expenses. It can take about 35 hours from Seoul to Uyuni.
Many dream of a South American trip to see the fantastic landscape, but due to the great distance, several factors must be considered. Various issues make it a place that is not easily visited.
If you cannot go to Bolivia, it’s a good idea to travel to China, which has a similar landscape. ‘Chaka Salt Lake’ in Xining, Qinghai Province, in northwestern China, is a travel destination known as the ‘Chinese Uyuni Desert.’ Chaka in Mongolian means ‘Sea of Salt.’ This natural salt lake is 10,170 feet above sea level, is about 9.8 miles long, and 5.7 miles wide. Chaka Salt Lake is the smallest of the four salt lakes in the Qinghai Qaidam Basin.
This place used to be a sea, but tectonic movements transformed it into a high mountain over a long period. In the process, the seawater left in the lowlands became a salt lake.
② Popular Among Local Tourists
Chaka Salt Lake is considered one of the most beautiful places in China. It is so famous that it often appears as a movie filming location. National Geographic selected it as one of the 55 places to visit in a lifetime.
Here, too, you can encounter a vast landscape spread out like a salt desert. The silver waves of the salt lake, the clear sky, and the distant mountains look like a painting. At Chaka Salt Lake, you can have the experience of walking in the sky as the sky is reflected in the lake. It is called the ‘Mirror of the Sky’ among the Chinese. Chaka Salt Lake has become a hot spot among young Chinese, and many tourists are leaving excellent photos at Chaka Salt Lake.
The sunrise and sunset here are stunning. It feels like a landscape framed in a picture. If you stay at a place by the lake, you can have an even more memorable experience. China’s Chaka Salt Lake is not yet well known to Korean tourists. It is challenging to visit individually, so most people travel using tour products. You can also utilize a day tour.
China’s Chaka Salt Lake is the ‘budget version’ of Bolivia’s Uyuni Desert. A flight ticket to Xining is about 72% cheaper compared to Lima, Peru, and about 88% cheaper than that to Uyuni, Bolivia. Compared to Bolivia, the airfare is much more affordable, and the travel time is not long, so it is known as an alternative travel destination.
Chaka Salt Lake is getting attention as a travel destination where you can feel the Uyuni Desert. Primarily, Chaka Salt Lake is known to have a sodium chloride content of 94% and a salt storage amount of 448 million tonnes. This is an enormous amount that all Chinese can eat comfortably for 70-80 years.
The salt here is famous for its large particles, deep taste, and fragrance. The salt particles contain minerals and have a bluish-black color. It is also called ‘blue salt.’
③ Once Suffered from Garbage
Meanwhile, Chaka Salt Lake once suffered from garbage. As Chaka Salt Lake began to gain fame, the footsteps of local tourists did not stop. As the number of tourists increased, so did the amount of garbage. The amount of garbage generated in a day at Chaka Salt Lake was a whopping 12 tons.
People left garbage and disposable plastic shoes on the spot when they entered the lake. The Chaka Salt Lake administration appealed not to throw garbage anywhere, but it had little effect.
Due to the severe garbage problem, about 180 local sanitation workers cleaned the garbage in shifts from 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Even this was not enough, and cleaning was not adequately done.
Chaka Salt Lake was closed due to COVID-19 and reopened in April 2020.
By. Kim Min Jae
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