Lake Khanka

Khanka covers around four thousand square kilometres on the plain of western Primorye, shared with China where it is called Xingkai, and it is very shallow - averaging four or five metres - which makes it warm, turbid and enormously productive. That productivity is why it matters: the marshes, reedbeds and wet meadows around it are among the most important bird habitats in East Asia, on the flyway between Siberia and south-east Asia, holding red-crowned and white-naped cranes, oriental storks, swan geese and hundreds of other species on passage and breeding. It is a Ramsar site and a transboundary reserve with the Chinese side. In July and August the sacred lotus flowers in the shallow bays and channels, in stands large enough to be a local event. Wind gets up fast on water this shallow and the lake becomes rough and muddy within minutes.

History

The lake appears on the Delisle map of 1706 as Himgon, on Johann Matthias Hase's map of 1739 as Lake Hinka and on d'Anville's map of 1752 as Hink, and the map attached to the Convention of Peking in 1860 shows it as Lake Khankai. The explorer Vladimir Arsenyev noted that under the Liao dynasty it was called Beitsin-hai (Wikipedia, Lake Khanka).

What you'll find

• The bird passage - cranes, storks and geese on the Siberia to south-east Asia flyway.
• The lotus - stands flowering in the shallow bays through July and August.
• The shallowness - a lake of four thousand square kilometres averaging a few metres deep.
• The transboundary reserve - protection shared with the Chinese side.

When to go

July and August for lotus; April to May and September for the largest bird movements. A day or an overnight.

Before you go

Core reserve zones need permits and much of the shore is inaccessible marsh. Birds are distant and a scope is needed. Wind makes the lake rough and boats unsafe quickly. Mosquitoes in the reedbeds are extreme. Parts of the shore are border zone.

Nearby

Spassk-Dalny is east; the Chinese border runs through the lake.

Key facts