Qiandao Lake () is a man-made freshwater lake located in

Chun'an County Chun'an () is a county of Zhejiang Province, East China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang, containing the well-known Qiandao Lake and bordering Anhui Anhui is an inland Provi ...

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

Province, China, that was formed after the completion of the Xin'an River hydroelectric station in 1959.

Geography

Qiandao Lake Scenic Area in Hangzhou is located in the hinterland of the Yangtze River Delta. 1,078 large islands dot the lake and a few thousand smaller ones are scattered across it. Over 90% of the land area is forested. The islands in the lake include Bird Island, Snake Island, Monkey Island, Lock Island (featuring supposedly the world's biggest lock), and the Island to Remind You of Your Childhood. The lake covers an area of and has a storage capacity of . The islands in the lake cover about . The trend of Qiandao Lake's transformation from mid mesotrophic to mesotrophic, the polluting elements are

heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals is a controversial and ambiguous term for metallic elements with relatively h ...

nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

and

organic matter Organic matter, organic material or natural organic matter is the large source of carbon-based compounds found within natural and engineered, terrestrial, and aquatic environments. It is matter composed of organic compounds that have come fro ...

, cages and cruise ships; (up to 10 meters underwater) the temperature changes greatly, with an average of 28.2 °C-24.4 °C, and the water temperature is mostly maintained at a relatively high temperature, called the warm water layer, which is greatly affected by floods. About 30 meters up and down there is a sudden change of water temperature. This layer can also be called thermocline. Spanning an area that nearly matches the size of Singapore and renown for having clear waters, Qiandao Lake hosts a major fishery and aquaculture industry. There are 83 species of fish in 13 families, including bighead carp, silver carp, grass carp, as well as precious fish species such as tuna, mandarin fish, and eel, with an annual output of more than 3,000 tons. It has also developed an artificial breeding industry, that mainly breeds carp, bream and tilapia, with an annual output of nearly 900,000 tons. Due to its still waters, the lake is stocked with 30,000 sturgeons, a species that is native to Russia and Central Asia, which are bred to produce

caviar Caviar or caviare is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or spread. Traditionally, the term caviar refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspi ...

for the Kaluga Queen label. The stillness of the waters helps the sturgeons to not have to swim against water currents and consequently be fattier, which allows its roe to be tastier and richer.

History

Xin'an River Dam

The valley was flooded in 1959 to create the lake for the Xin'an River Dam project. The dam that created the lake is located at and is tall with a crest length of . Xin'an Dam was the first dam constructed in China with a height greater than and its power plant has an installed capacity of 845 MW.

Submerged city of Shicheng

Submerged in the lake, at the foot of Wushi Mountain (五狮山, "Five Lion Mountain"), lies an ancient city known as Shicheng (狮城, "Lion City"), and was the county seat of the defunct Sui'an County (遂安县), which was merged into

due to the construction of Qiandao Lake. It was built during the

Eastern Han Dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

(AD 25–200) and was first set up as a county in AD 208. The city acquired its name from nearby Wushi (Five Lion) Mountain, which is now known as Wushi Island since it too became partially submerged by the reservoir. At present Shi Cheng remains well-preserved and undisturbed at a depth of . Besides the city of Shi Cheng many other historic sites have been confirmed beneath the water.

Qiandao Lake incident

In 1994, in an event since named the Qiandao Lake Incident, three hijackers boarded a boat full of tourists and set it on fire, killing all 32 passengers on board. The passengers were mainly tourists from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Archimedes bridge

In 1998, a Chinese-Italian consortium began planning the construction of a prototype of a submerged floating tunnel (also known as an

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...

bridge), and decided in 2005 to build it across Qiandao Lake. The bridge, the first in the world of its kind, is expected to span , as a proof of concept for larger bridges.

Economy

Companies take advantage of the pristine quality of the water and environment for

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

and water branding. Qiandao Lake is used to produce the Nongfu Spring brand of

mineral water Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. It is usually still, but may be sparkling ( carbonated/ effervescent). Traditionally, mineral waters were used or consumed at t ...

. Kaluga Queen produces much of the world's caviar through raising sturgeon in pens at the lake. The lake has made

a popular area for tourists. As a result, housing development has increased in the area since the late 1990s.

Transport

An expressway links

, Qiandao Lake, and Huangshan in

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

. Every half an hour buses leave from West Hangzhou bus station to that connect Qiandao Lake. On December 25, 2018, high speed rail services started to serve the Qiandaohu railway station on the Hangzhou-Huangshan intercity railway.

Gallery

References

External links

* {{Zhejiang topics Lakes of China Tourist attractions in Zhejiang Lakes of Zhejiang Reservoirs in China Chun'an County