Caohai (Weining)

National Nature Reserve; High Plateau Wetland And The Principal Wintering Ground Of The Black Necked Crane In Guizhou · Weining, Guizhou

Caohai sits at about two thousand two hundred metres on the roof of Guizhou, a shallow plateau lake whose name means sea of grass and whose average depth is barely two metres - more a flooded meadow than a lake, which is exactly what makes it valuable. From November to March it is the wintering ground of well over a thousand black-necked cranes, the only crane in the world that spends its entire life at high altitude, along with bar-headed geese, black storks and tens of thousands of other birds. The lake nearly did not survive. In the 1970s it was drained to make farmland, a decision that ruined both the wetland and the soil, and in 1982 the local authorities reversed it and deliberately flooded the basin again. The cranes came back. Today farmers from the Yi, Hui and Miao villages around the shore pole flat-bottomed punts out among the reeds, and in the right season the noise at dawn is extraordinary.

Weining Yi, Hui and Miao Autonomous County, Bijie, Weining, Guizhou, China

The lake and the shore access points are open through the day, with a modest or no charge at several points and a ticket at some managed viewing areas. SEASONAL IN THE ONLY SENSE THAT MATTERS: THE BLACK-NECKED CRANES ARE PRESENT ROUGHLY NOVEMBER TO MARCH, arriving in late October and November and leaving in March and early April, and outside that window there is little to see. GO AT DAWN. Punts are hired informally from local boatmen at the shore and do not operate in ice or high wind.

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