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Weishan Lake-the base of guerilla force

Weishan Lake"The sun is going to set in the west! The Weishan Lake is very peaceful." When hear or sing this beautiful tune, the image of Weishan Lake flashes in my mind. The lake was ever haunted by the Chinese railway guerrilla during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-1945).

Located in Shandong Province, the lake is contiguous from north to south to Nanyang Lake, Dushan Lake, and Zhaoyang lakes, which together are called the Four Southern Lakes.

Before the Yuan Dynasty, the area was a plain low-lying land through which the ancient Sishui River flew. Later it became a narrow lake with deposit of sand. With the flood of Yellow River destroying the Sishui and Huaihe Rivers in addition to the construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the lake stretched northwest and southeast. Finally it formed the present four lakes in the shape of a dumbbell, narrow in the middle and broad at the two ends.

The four lakes belong to the Sishui system in Huaihe River valley and receive water from the nearby 32 counties of three provinces in the east, west and north, namely Jiangsu Province, Shandong Province and Anhui Province. The Beijing-Shanghai Railway and Longhai Railway meets here, so the area was a place contested by all strategists in history.

Weishan LakeIn the War of Resistance against Japan, the Chinese guerrillas made full use of the typographical advantages in this area and defeated the enemies heavily based on the nearby counties, such as Yunzhou, Tengxian and Zaozhuang, etc. In that way, they not only protected their homeland but also boosted the morale of the Chinese people.

In the War of Liberation (1945-1949), the Huaihai Campaign was fought here.  Xuzhou City, right on the southern side of the lake, is an important military fort, where there is a monument for the Huai-Hai Campaign  for people to worship.

Poyang Lake-the ancient battlefield <<
Qiandao Lake-the lake with charming scene >>