Poyang Lake-the Largest Fresh Water Lake in China Geographical Location

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Poyang lake is located at latitude 28022′-29045′ north, longitude 115047’—11645′ east. It lies in the northern part of Jiangxi Province, at the southern bank of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It is divided into two parts by Mount Songmenshan. The northern part is the water channel joining the Yangtze River, with the length of 40km and the width of 3-5km (the narrowest point is 2.8km or so). The southern part is the main lake, with the length of 133km and the furthest width of 74km.

Evolutional History

Poyang Jake was called Penglize Bog, Pengze Bog, Yanglan Bog, Gongtinghu Lake and many other’ names in ancient times. Over very long time, Penglize Bog expanded to the south and water went over Mount Songmenshan and reached over thevicinity of Poyang County, under the interaction of geological, meteorological and hydrological factors. So its name was changed to Poyang Lake. Before the invasion of water to the south, the south to Mount Songmenshan was originally a well-populated Xiaoyang Plain. With gradual expansion of water to the south, Xiaoyang County and Haihun County in the Basin of Poyang Lake was submerged into water successively.

There is a saying that “Xiaoyang submerged and Duchang appeared, and Haihun submerged and Wucheng appeared”. Over long-term evolution, the modern miniature of the mist-covered and vast Poyang Lake formed about 1600 years ago. It is like a big precious gourd tied with the girdle -the Yangtze River of thousands of miles long.

The Largest Fresh Water Lake in China

Poyang Lake is 173 km long from north to south. The furthest width is 74km.

with the average width 16.9 km from west to east. The lakeshore is 1200 km long.

According to the data telemetered from a secondary planet, the largest area of the water body is 5,100 square kilometers, with the average depth 6.4m, and the inmost depth is about 25.1m. Its volume is about 30 billion cubic meters. It is the largest fresh water lake in China. It holds water from the five rivers-Ganjiang River, Fuhe River, Xinjiang River, Raohe River and Xiuhe River. The area of the watershed is 162 thousand km2, covering 97 percent of Jiangxi provincial territory. Its annual afflux of water to the Yangtze River exceeds the total water amount of the three rivers-Yellow River, Huaihe River and Haihe River.

The Important International Wetland

Poyang lake is an important international wetland as well as an important storing lake of the main streanm of the Yangtze River. It plays very important ecological functions in floodwater storage and biological diversity protection in the watershed of the Yangtze River. It is one of the 10 ecological conservation areas in China, and it is the only Chinese memher of World Living lake Network. It is also one of the global important ecological areas regulated by WWF. It plays a very important role in maintaining the ecological security of the region and the nation.

Rich Biological Resources

Poyang Lake is not only abundant in the living aquatic resources but also rich in biological resources on the lake beach and emerged bottomland. There are 102 species of aquatic plant,266 species of plankton,122 species of fish,2 species of sea pig genera, and 87 species of shelfishes in the lake, among which about 10 kinds of fishes, such as carp, crucian carp, chub, bighead carp, herring, grass carp, white fish and white fin porpoise are of greater economic value. Finless porpoise also has 200-300 heads in Poyang lake. Besides, there are many kinds of shellfish, shrimp, crab, waterfowl, lotus root and plenty of aquatic grass. And in the conservation area there are above 300 species of bird, among which water bird occupies 115 species, accounting for about 51 percent of 225 species of water bird of the Nation as a whole.

“The World of White Cranes”and”The Kingdom of Rare Birds”The environment and climatic conditions of Poyang Lake are suitable for migratory birds to live through the winter. At late autumn and early winter in every year, thousands and thousands of birds migrate from Siberia of Russia, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, and northeastern and northwestern China. Until spring(April) of next year, they gradually migrate away. Nowadays, in the conversation there are more than 300 kinds and a million plumes of birds, among which 50 kinds are rare birds.

It becomes the largest bird conservation area in the world. Especially, it is here that the largest group of white cranes was found in the world. The total number of wintering population was above 4,000 in 2002, accounting for more than 95 percent of total of white crane in the world. This is why Poyang Lake comes to be known as “the world of white cranes”and”the kingdom of rare birds”. In June,1983,”thePoyang Lake Bird Protection Area”was established in Wucheng Town of Yongxiu County, which became the national nature reserve with the approval of the State Council in May,1988.

Cultural History

Poyang Lake Watershed has been one of the rich areas in China since ancient times. Many historically distinguished characters of our nation, such as Xu Zhi, Tao Yuannming, Lin Shihong, Iiu Shu, Hong Shi, Jiang Wanli and Zhu Da, had once lived in the lake area. Besides, many powerful heroes’ stories have taken place here. For example, Zhou Yu trained his marine; marine war in Poyang Lake broke out between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang; and Li Liejun launched “Secondary Revolution”at Hukou. Poyang Lake was the only waterway from the north to Jiangxi in ancient times. Anecdotes and legends arising from Poyang Lake are countless. The well-known lines—”fisher boat singing in the sunset glow and echoing at the Pengli Shore”of Preface to Tengwang Pavilion wrote by Wang Bo,a poet in the Tang Dynasty, has depicted the fishers’ cheerful scene of harvesting of fish back from Poyang Lake. Su Shi,a great poet in the Song Dynasty, wrote that”Green Mountains around, water without bound, in the middle was painted small or big island”in the poem of Li Sixun’s Drawing of Splendid Island of the Yangtze River, which has given us a picture of the beautiful scenery of Poyang Lake.