A 30-strong survey group has located China's lowest inland point
at Aiding Lake in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
However, the group from the Xinjiang Bureau of Surveying and
Mapping still has to collect more data to find the exact altitude
of the point.
The National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping would then work on
the data collected by the Xinjiang bureau and publish the precise
altitude, officials with the Xinjiang bureau said.
The lake is frozen and flat in winter, making it difficult to
find out the lowest point. The surveying group erected about
1,000poles to form a grid and measured every part of the grid to
locate the point.
Aiding, Uygur for "Moonlight", lies at the base of Turpan Basin
and has a water surface of seven square kilometers. It is the
world's second-lowest lake after the Dead Sea in the Middle
East.
The Xinjiang Bureau of Surveying and Mapping in 1979 said the
lowest point of the lake was 154 meters below sea level. Major
changes have taken place since then, requiring the re-measuring,
said bureau head Liu Geqing.
The group chose Jan. 10 to begin re-measuring because in summer
temperatures can rise to an unbearable 70 degrees Celsius and the
swamps are not accessible.
The survey is expected to end in April.
(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2007)