Salt lakes are found mainly in inland regions like the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia Most of the lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were formed by the action of glaciers. Qinghai Lake is the largest inland salt lake in China, and second to it is Lop Nur on the eastern rim of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang Nam Co in Tibet, 4,718 meters above sea level, is the highest large salt lake in the world. With its surface 154 meters below sea level, Aydingkol in the Turpan depression, Xinjiang, is the lowest lake in China.

There are numerous salt lakes in China. Many of them are found in the Qaidam Basin, which means “ salt marsh” in Mongolian. The hundred or more salt lakes there, covering a total area of 8,500 square kilometers, have a salt reserve of 100,000 million tons. There are 420 or more salt lakes on the Northern Tibet Plateau. The Jilantai and Yabrai lakes in the Inner Mongolia Plateau and Xiechi Lake in Yuncheng, Shanxi, are famous for their salt.