Siling Lake

Siling Lake (Tibetan: སེར་གླིང་མཚོ, Wylie: ser gling mtsho, ZYPY: Sêling Co; Chinese: 色林错; pinyin: Sèlín cuò), (also known as Qilin or Selincuo) is a salt lake in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China to the north of Xainza.

With an area of 1,865 km2 (720 sq mi), Siling Co is the second largest saltwater lake in the northern Tibetan Plateau and forms part of the Xainza Nature Reserve.

The 400,000-hectare (990,000-acre) reserve was established in 1993 and contains significant populations of black-necked cranes and some 120 species of birds in total.

[citation needed] The prairie on the banks of the lake is traditionally used as grazing land for yaks and sheep.

The average rainfall is 290 mm (11 in) per year, 90 percent of which falls in the months of June to September, often in the summer as hail.