Why is Baishui Glacier called the Third Pole?

Each year, millions of people visit the 4, 570-meter-high Baishui Glacier in southern China. Scientists say it is one of the world’s fastest-melting glaciers. The huge body of ice is in the southeastern edge of a Central Asian region called the Third Pole. It is about 4. 5 million square kilometers in area and holds the world’s third largest collection of ice after Antarctica and Greenland. Third Pole glaciers are critical to billions of people from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Seasonal glacier melts feed Asia’s 10 largest rivers, including the Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong, and Ganges.