Yueyaquan (Chinese: 月牙泉) is a crescent-shaped lake located at 5 kilometers south of the city of Dunhuang (敦煌) in Gansu (甘肅) Province, China. The lake had several names in the past, it was named Yueyaquan in the Qing (清) Dynasty (17th century).
Yueyaquan is surrounded by desert, it is around 100 meters long and 25 meters wide.
According to measurements made in 1960, the average depth of the lake was 4 to 5 metres, but in the following 40 years, the depth of the lake keeps declining.
Yueyaquan is a natural wonder, but its periphery is filled with many newly built archaic buildings, looks a bit cheap.
Yueyaquan is quite big, you must go to the top of the sand dune if you want to take photos of the whole lake.
For Choumeizai, the Singing Sand Dunes (鳴沙山) are more natural and beautiful than Yueyaquan, which make you become a lonely traveler of the Silk Road.
