Chao Lake (), also known by its
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
name Chao Hu, is a lake wholly situated in
Hefei, the capital of
Anhui Province
Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
. It is the largest lake in Anhui and one of the five largest freshwater lakes in China.
Mythology
According to legend, the site of the lake was once a prosperous city named Chaozhou. Because of sins of its people, it was cursed by the heavens and ordered to be destroyed by flooding. The task was to be carried out by a white dragon who was only able to find one good person, an old lady ("Lao" in Chinese) surnamed Jiao. After the destruction of Chaozhou, only the old lady and her daughter were saved. They became the two islands emerging from the lake.
This legend may be rooted in geological history, since Lake Chao is on the intersection of several major
faults, of which the most famous is the
Tan-Lu fault, which caused the great
1976 Tangshan earthquake
The 1976 Tangshan earthquake () was a 7.6 earthquake that hit the region around Tangshan, Hebei, China, at 3:42 a.m. on 28 July 1976. The maximum intensity of the earthquake was XI (''Extreme'') on the Mercalli scale. In minutes, 85 percen ...
in its northern section.
Tourism
Tourist sites around the lake include
Mushan Island, Zhongmiao Temple, Tongyang River, Mount Yinping, and the Immortals Cave.
The silver fish, shrimps, and crabs of Lake Chao are called the Three Treasures; as such, the lake is nicknamed "The Land of Fish and Rice".
Pollution and rehabilitation
About 5 million people live near the lake and use it for irrigation, transportation, and fishing. Heavy use since the 1990s led to
eutrophication
Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytopla ...
and
silting
Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...
. Due to China's rapid economic growth, the lake became one of China's most polluted.
For government authorities, cleanup of the lake has been a top priority. The Chinese government borrowed from the
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field offic ...
a $250 million loan in 2011 to fund "investments in traditional environmental infrastructure, such as sewerage networks, wastewater treatment plants, and solid waste management" along with policy changes like discouraging use of chemical fertilizer among area farmers. According to an ADB press release in 2015, the program to clean up the lake has been successful based on "strong and consistent political leadership, integrated planning and analysis, effective management structures, and financial engineering."
Notes
References
External links
Ecology research project
{{Anhui topics
Lakes of Anhui
Tourist attractions in Anhui