Lakes are abundant in the arid/semi-arid region of Inner Mongolia-Xinjiang Plateau, but many of them are salt lakes and saline lakes so that the lake water resources are poor. In recent years, most lakes in the region have quickly becoming salty, area withered and dry, which greatly damaged the ecological environments of the lakes and their catchments. Eleven fresh and slight saline lakes in this region were chosen to investigate. Based on the analysis of the water quality status and their disrepancy, the characteristics and reasons of the water quality variety were explored. Our results showed that Na⁺ and SO₄^2- were the dominant ions within the lake water of Inner Mongolia, while the lake water in Xinjiang were dominant by multiple ions. The and total disolved solid concentrations (TDS) of lake water were different with the water exchange variety. TDSs of lakes surround by mountains, including Lake Kanasi, Fukangtianchi and Sailimu Lake, were stable between 1988 and 2008, which reflected the climate change of the region. TTie TDSs rf Lake Caiwopu and Lake Hongjiannao increased quickly while that of Dalinuo increased slowly, which were impacted by anthropic activates including reservoir building and groundwater exploitation. During the past fifty years, fluctuations of the TDS concentraticms in Lake Wulungu, Lake Bosten, Lake Jili and Lake Ulansuhai raised and increased recently because climatic drying and the development of industry and agriculture.