Qinghai Lake [Photo/Agencies]

The China Central Television’s (CCTV) “China’s Most Beautiful Wetlands” voting event ended on June 21, with Qinghai Lake wetlands being ranked 8th, qhnews.com reported.

CCTV News began broadcasting their special wetlands episode of “Green China – Glance at Summer” on June 14. 210,000 internet users cast votes on Weibo online for the “Internet user’s favorite wetland”.

Wetlands, the “kidneys of the earth”, bear the important mission of purifying the earth’s environment.

The wetlands resource area in Qinghai Province ranks first in the nation, nearly growing by half from 5.56 million hectares in 2003 to 8.1436 million hectares, and accounting for 15.19 percent of China’s total wetlands area.

Data shows that for many years, Qinghai Lake has maintained growth. The lake area in 2015 was 4,432.32 square kilometers, increasing by 49.84 square kilometers from 2014, reaching its maximum in recent years.

At the same time, desertification in the Qinghai Lake area has reduced, degeneration of the grasslands has slowed down, and the body of water area has tended to expand.

Qinghai Lake maintains the ecological security of the northeast Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau region, and also acts as a barrier by controlling the spread of desertification from the western regions to the east. Data shows that the ecological environment in Qinghai Lake has been getting better in recent years.