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)

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.

Liu Yang, China's first female astronaut, waves during a departure ceremony at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, on June 16, 2012. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters via The Atlantic)

A 3-month-old ethnic Tujia baby girl is pictured next to her father as they wait for a traditional ethnic Tujia wedding feast during celebrations marking the Lunar New Year in Ziqiu town, Changyang county of China’s Hubei province, February 15, 2016. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

A visitor falls down as they run away from a wave caused by a tidal bore which surged past a barrier on the banks of Qiantang River, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, October 28, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Contestants for the Miss World grand final perform in colourful costumes during a dress rehearsal in Sanya, Hainan province, China, 18 December 2015. (Photo by How Hwee Young/EPA)

“Left behind” children Luo Hongni, 11 (L) and brother Luo Gan,10, carry flowers to be used as feed while doing chores in the fields on December 18, 2016 in Anshun, China. Like millions of Chinese children, the four Luo siblings are being raised by their grandparents in rural China as their parents left to find work in urban areas. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)