A tourist splashes water on the frozen Songhua River on December 18, 2023 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province of China. The water immediately freezes into ice in the frigid air. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

A woman wearing a costume takes selfies while waiting for a photo shooting session in front of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China on January 5, 2024. (Photo by Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

Tourists are watching the sunrise from a viewing platform on the Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, China, on June 23, 2024. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Ratko Mladic makes his first appearance at the International Criminal Tribunal on June 3, 2011 in The Hague, Netherlands. Ex-Bosnian Serb army leader Ratko Mladic will make his first appearance at The Hague war crimes tribunal after being declared fit to stand trial. Mladic was arrested a week ago after going into hiding for the past 16 years and is charged with atrocities committed during the Bosnian war. (Photo Serge Ligtenberg/Getty Images )

Young dancers perform at a preview show for the Chinese Lantern Festival which falls on February 6 and traditionally marks the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations on February 3, 2012 in Beijing, China.The Lantern Festival also known as the Yuanxiao Festival or Shangyuan Festival in China.(Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

A Chinese couple take pictures in an interactive installation art work named “You and Me” on Valentine's Day at 798 Art Zone on February 14, 2012 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

A 22-year-old woman in a wedding gown is grabbed by Guo Zhongfan, a local community officer, as she attempts to kill herself by jumping out of a seven-storey residential building in Changchun, Jilin province. According to local media, the woman tried to commit suicide after her boyfriend of four years broke up with her, just as they were making plans to get married. The woman did not sustain any injuries during the incident. (Photo by China Daily/Reuters)

Yueyaquan is a crescent-shaped lake in an oasis, 6 km south of the city of Dunhuang in Gansu Province, China. It was named Yueyaquan in the Qing Dynasty. According to measurements made in 1960, the average depth of the lake was 4 to 5 meters, with a maximum depth of 7.5 metres In the following 40 years, the depth of the lake continually declined. In the early 1990s, its area had shrunk to only 5,500 m2 with an average depth of 0.9 meter (maximum 1.3 meter). In 2006, the local government with help of the central government started to fill the lake and restore its depth; its depth and size have been growing yearly since then. The lake and the surrounding deserts are very popular with tourists, who are offered camel and 4x4 rides.