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The Largest Freshwater Lake--Vast Poyang Lake
 As the largest freshwater lake in China, the Poyang Lake lies in the north of Jiangxi Province, and on the south bank of the Yangtze River. It extends across 11 cities and counties, such as Nanchang, Xinjian and Jiujiang. When the flood level reaches 21.69 meters, the lake length is 170.0km, average width 17.3km, covering an area of 2933 square kilometres. The maximum depth of water is 29.19m, average depth of water 5.1m, water storage 149.6 x108m3.
Poyang Lake has another name called Penglize or Pengze. However, actually it is not the ancient Penglize, but formed until the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In Han dynasty, the vast water area of Poyang Lake is the plain at the lower reach of Huhan River (called Gan River now). In Han dynasty, Wuyang County is set up here, and it is also the site of the five feuds of Changyi. At that time, the main watercourse is around the area of nowadays Longgan Lake and the river to the north of Lushan Mountain is just a branch of the Yangtze River, called Small River at that time. Probably about AD 400, i.e. the early year of Song (Liu) Dynasty, the main course of Yangtze River moved to Jiujiang - Hukou area. The surging water not only blocked the Gan River, but also flowed backward into the lower reach plain of Gan River, gradually forming Poyang Lake. Till the Tang Dynasty, the maximum area of Poyang Lake was up to 6000 km2. Thus, Poyang Lake is a fluvial lake formed from the course change of the Yangtze River. It is also a lake taking in and sending out water, with great seasonal change. In the join period of spring and summer, the lake water swells fiercely, and the lake surface expands rapidly. In your eyes is boundless blue water, "the sky and the water take on the same color." However, when winter comes, the lake water falls sharply, and the lake surface dwindles suddenly. You can see strap like water, yellow cogongrass and white reed as vast as champaign, with only some wild goose moors and little lakes imbedded among them. At the moment, the lake area is only 140 km2.
The water of Poyang Lake relies mainly on the surface runoff and precipitation for replenishment. The catchment area reaches 16.2x104 km2 and the coefficient of replenishment is 55. The major inflows entering the lake are the Gan River, Fu River, Xin River, Rao River, Xiu River, Boyang Lake and West Lake. The outflow goes out of the mouth of the lake and pours northward into the Yangtze River. Because the seasonal change of Poyang Lake is tremendous, a large number of bottomland would come out during the winter and spring. A large number of water plant and animal living on the bottomland are good bait for the poultry. Therefore, a large number of rare birds come here to live through winter. Among them there are class I and class II birds protected by the nation, such as  Siberian White Crane, White-naped Crane, White Stork, Dark Stork and Whistling Swan. China has also set up a migratory bird's protection zone here. Every winter, an endless stream of visitors would come to view the" migratory bird paradise", " white crane kingdom."
See the detailed introduction of Poyang Lake in "the ancient battle field where Zhu Yuanzhang (First emperor of Ming Dynasty) defeated Chen Youliang" in the chapter of Enjoying Interesting Lakes.
The Largest Lake- Primitive Qinghai Lake <<
The Highest Lake-Azure Nam Co >>
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