A Survey of Yiong Co Lake

YANG YICHOU

I love Yiong Co Lake, largely because it is naturally beautiful. During my 20 or so surveys as a member of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Survey Team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ever since 1973, I always tried to find time to visit it. My latest visit to the lake took place in mid-November 1998. Surrounded by green woods against the backdrop of snow-capped mountains in the surrounding area, the lake is known to all in southeastern Tibet. The area abounds in tea, and Tibets tea garden was built here. Its Qomolangmo Brand tea is famous far and wide.

We were put up in Tongmei, skirted by the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, which is 22 km from Yiong Lake. When our car passed the Tongmei Bridge, the Yiong Zangbo River greeted our eyes. We drove along the river screened by snow-covered mountains, and reached a valley dotted with green firs and yellowish and red broadleaf trees. The autumn scene intoxicated everyone. The road is rugged as it is used for the transport of lumber. Recent years have seen tightened control of wanton felling, and a lower highway usage rate.

Yiong Co Lake was formed some 100 years ago by a mud-stone flow that blocked downstream rivers. By the lake is a Western-style building serving as the autonomous regional Party school. Lakeside slopes abound with tea plantations. Actually, the lake sits in a mountainous river valley beset by high mountains, including Nyainqentanglha Mountain to the north, which is famous for glaciers and pristine forests. Local people dwell on fan-shaped open land by the lake. They live on farming and growing tea. At one spot there is a small temple, which we saw even from some distance away. Close to the lake below the fan-shaped land is the lakeshore, where there horses and cows roamed. In the lake are some tiny islets formed by silted sand and mud. Bathed in the crimson sunset glow, birds flew everywhere. We visited farmland by the lake and were astonished to see small tea gardens there. According to the locals, growing tea is lucrative and many in the area live on this business.

"We used to depend on tea brought here from Yunnan and Sichuan provinces as well as from India," we were told. "Hope you will find even more places suitable for tea growing."