A 30-strong survey group has located China's lowest inland point at Aiding Lake in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

However, the group from the Xinjiang Bureau of Surveying and Mapping still has to collect more data to find the exact altitude of the point.

The National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping would then work on the data collected by the Xinjiang bureau and publish the precise altitude, officials with the Xinjiang bureau said.

The lake is frozen and flat in winter, making it difficult to find out the lowest point. The surveying group erected about 1,000poles to form a grid and measured every part of the grid to locate the point.

Aiding, Uygur for "Moonlight", lies at the base of Turpan Basin and has a water surface of seven square kilometers. It is the world's second-lowest lake after the Dead Sea in the Middle East.

The Xinjiang Bureau of Surveying and Mapping in 1979 said the lowest point of the lake was 154 meters below sea level. Major changes have taken place since then, requiring the re-measuring, said bureau head Liu Geqing.

The group chose Jan. 10 to begin re-measuring because in summer temperatures can rise to an unbearable 70 degrees Celsius and the swamps are not accessible.

The survey is expected to end in April.

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2007)