Namtso Lake

Located at an altitude of 4718 meters, Namtso Lake is regarded as the highest large lake in the world, and moreover, it is the second largest salt lake in China. With a total area of more than 1,920 square kilometers, Namtso Lake is 70 kilometers long from east to west and 30 kilometers wide from south to north. The water is 33 meters deep with a volume of 76.8 billion cubic meters.

Namtso straddles two counties in Tibet, Baingoin County in Nagchu prefecture and Damshung county in Lhasa prefecture, and is about 100 kilometers away from Lhasa. On the south side, it is the east section of the famous maintain, Nyanqêntanglha. 

"Namtso" in Tibetan has the meaning of "Holy Lake". There are another two famous holy lakes in Tibet, Lake Manasarovar and Yamdrok Lake. There are four monasteries on four sides of the Namtso lake, Tashiduopoche Monastery in the east, Guerqiongpema Monastery in the south, Duoga Monastery in the west and Tsatuo Monastery in the north, which stand for Buddhism's unpleasure, anger, right and power respectively.

If the person wants to strengthen up memory and wash away dust, he could pat his head with the lake water. Though tourists enjoy the natural beauty, they easily suffer from the altitude sickness. The best time to visit Namtso Lake is from June to September, otherwise it can not be accessible because of the heavy snow on October or November.