Tourists take selfies. [Photo by Song Wei/chinadaily.com.cn]

For the first timers to the Tibet plateau, there is usually so much to take in but so hard to breathe, literally and figuratively. Your heartbeat increases when you see something magnificent, but your footsteps slow down due to lack of air. This is exactly what happens when Nam Co Lake comes into sight.

Nam Co which means "heavenly lake", is 4,718 meters above sea level and its surface area is 1,940 sq kilometers. It is the highest altitude salt lake in the world and the head of the three biggest sacred lakes in Tibet.