Heaven Lake, also named Tianchi 天池 in Chinese, is located in Hami prefecture of Xinjiang. It is about100km east of Ürümqi – the starting point of Vikram Seth's book From Heaven Lake – almost lives up to its name, especially for travellers who have spent a long time in the deserts of northwest China.
At the cool, refreshing height of 2000m, the Heaven Lake is surrounded by grassy meadows, steep, dense pine forests and jagged snow-covered peaks, including the mighty Bogda Peak, which soars to over 6000 meters.
The nicest feature of the area is that you can wander at will. There are no restrictions on accommodation (most people stay in yurts, with the semi-nomadic Kazakh population), and there is virtually limitless hiking. You need only to watch the weather – bitterly cold in winter, the lake is really only accessible during the summer months, May to September.