The shallow aquifer of the Badain Jaran Desert represents the sole water supply to a distinctive oasis lake ecosystem and related small-scale agriculture. Despite environmental concern and high demand for water resources to support development in II II (7') ~) i Ii f northwestern China, few investigations have provided information on sources or rates of groundwater recharge. This study was undertaken in order to derive a sound conceptual model of recharge to this desert aquifer using multiple environmental tracer approaches. It represents one of the first detailed investigations of recharge in cold arid environments. Unsaturated zone chloride mass balance indicates that direct recharge through unconsolidated sands occurs at a rate of approximately 1 mm1yr. This represents 1.5% of annual rainfall, a similar ratio to many warm deserts worldwide. While spatial variability in diffuse recharge is found to be remarkably low, temporal variability in deep drainage over the last 700 years is observed from pore moisture chemistry and is attributable to fluctuations in the influence of the East Asian Summer Monsoon. Stable isotope compositions confirm that direct recharge is not a major recharge source to the desert's southeastern section.