Badain Jaran Desert

Badain Jaran Desert
Photo in the Public Domain.

Badain Jaran Desert is located in the Alashan Plateau in the hyper-arid and temperate desert region of northwestern China and contains a concentrated distribution of mega-dunes with a relative height of more than 200 metres, and the inter-dunal lake basins.

It is an ideal place to study the ongoing evolutionary processes of desert geomorphology in the temperate extreme arid desert region.

Community Perspective: Zoë went "years ago" and suggests seeing the various lakes and the singing dunes.

1 Locations 1 Reviews 1 Ratings 12 Connections 5 Visitors

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Zoë Sheng

Chinese-Canadian - 30-Aug-24 -

I went to Badain years ago. It is best combined with the Zhangye Danxia because of the close proximity - at least for China. These days you can fly into Jinchang and get a taxi from there. From Zhangye I had a driver taking me to the entrance of the park which is 2-3 hours driving so you leave really early or stay in the park which is usually recommended. I didn't because I saw all I wanted within a day. The entrance of the park doesn't really have much to do.

After paying for the ticket (expensive by the way) you can roam around the park but it's still far to trek anywhere so your best bet is to rent a jeep the park offers. It will save you so much time. It can take you through the park to the "thousands of lakes in the desert" although Badain Lake (巴丹湖) is the most popular one which is probably why you need ANOTHER ticket just to enter that area. The main thing to see in my opinion are the various lakes (doesn't have to be Badain Lake), the huuuuuge sand dunes and the singing sand (or singing dunes if you prefer). The famous Bilutu Peak is just in-between the many lakes.

After perhaps 4-5 hours inside the park it was time to go back which means exchanging cars and a long drive back (to Zhangye or Jinchang).

Overall this is an expensive trip because the driver + entrance and you can see similar deserts around the world but I still recommend it. I would probably also recommend a longer trip if you can afford it (time and money).

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Site Info

Full Name
Badain Jaran Desert - Towers of Sand and Lakes
Unesco ID
1638
Country
China
Inscribed
2024
Type
Natural
Criteria
7 8
Categories
Natural landscape - Desert
Link
By ID

Site History

2024 Inscribed

2021 Postponed

Due to Covid reasons

Site Links

Unesco Website
Badain Jaran Desert - Towers of Sand and Lakes

Locations

The site has 1 locations

Badain Jaran Desert

Connections

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Ecology
Dunes: mega-dune systems
Critically endangered fauna species: Wild Camel (Camelus ferus) (AB ev)
Tectonic processes: Criterion (viii): "The property appears to be a very rare example at global scale that reflects the evolutionary landforms as a combined result of regional tectonism and hydrogeological changes associated with climatic evolution." - AB Evaluation
Hyper-arid: Crit vii: "desert landscapes and landforms subject to a temperate, hyper-arid climate." (OUV)
Endorheic Lakes: "The144 inter-dunal lakes are exceptional (AB ev) , "The sources of lake water are also debated, but there are four main hypotheses: atmospheric precipitation, groundwater from nearby areas, precipitation and snowmelt in remote areas such as the Qilian Mountains and the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, or paleowater that formed during past periods of wet climate"
Yardangs: Yardangs are present in a small section of Badain Jaran (see link), however the AB ev states that smaller components with yardangs were excluded from the final nomination.
Religion and Belief
Tibetan Buddhism: Badain Jaran Temple (1868) (wiki)
WHS Names
Epic Subtitles: "Towers of Sand and Lakes"
Untranslated Toponyms: "mysterious lakes" in Mongolian
WHS on Other Lists
Global Geoparks: Part of Alxa Desert UNESCO Global Geopark
World Heritage Process
Reduced from broader TWHS: Original had 4 locations, the three other nominated component parts (Haisenchulu; Eribugai Gorge; Mandela Mt.) were removed during discussions with IUCN during the nomination process (too small and not globally significant).
Natural sites filling gaps cited by IUCN: "The 2021 IUCN thematic study on the application of criterion (viii) noted that the nominated property belongs to one of the evident geographical gaps (Central and East Asia) in current listings. The nominated property also represents desert lakes and playas (i.e. flat and dry desert basins), which are recognised as lacking appropriate recognition on the World Heritage List. In addition, the nominated property is seen as holding potential of filling a gap for evidencing historic climatic change." (AB ev)

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