Dongting Lake

Coordinates: 29°18′36″N 112°57′00″E / 29.31000°N 112.95000°E / 29.31000; 112.95000
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Dongting Lake
Tung-tʻing Lake
Yangtze
Basin countriesChina
Surface area2,820 km2 (1,090 sq mi)
flood season: 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi)
Official nameDong-ting hu
Designated31 March 1992
Reference no.551[1]
Dongting Lake
Tâi-lô
Tōng-tîng Ôo
Map showing Lake Dongting and the major rivers flowing into it

Dongting Lake (

Yangtze River, so its volume depends on the season. The provinces of Hubei and Hunan are named after their location relative to the lake: Hubei means "North of the Lake" and Hunan, "South of the Lake".[2]

Dongting Lake is famous in Chinese culture as the place of origin of

dragon boat racing. It is the site of Junshan Island and is home to the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise.[2]

Geography

Map including Dongting Lake (labeled as TUNG-T'ING HU 洞庭湖) (1953)
Map of Dongting Plain

In the July–September period, flood water from the

Yangtze flows into the lake, enlarging it greatly. The lake's area, which normally is 2,820 km2 or 1,090 sq mi (data before 1998), may increase to 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi) in flood season, when vast amounts of water and sediment from the Chang Jiang flow into the lake. The lake is also fed by four major rivers: the Xiang, Zi, Yuan and Li rivers. Small rivers also flow in, the most famous being the Miluo River, where the loyal official and poet Qu Yuan committed suicide in the early 3rd century BC, according to tradition. In addition, the Xiao River flows into the Xiang near Yongzhou, before the Xiang flows into the lake. Ocean-going vessels can travel through the Xiang to reach Changsha.[3]

River and Lake

The Dongting Lake catchment area is 257,000 km2 (99,000 sq mi). The lake's only outlet is a natural channel 14 km long and on average 1 km wide. There are four main rivers in the catchment (excluding the area whose water flows directly into the Yangtze River, the same hereafter): the

Chenglingji Station and discharges downstream. The water in Dongting Lake mainly comes from surface runoff
and direct rainfall on the lake surface. The Dongting Lake catchment begins to enter the rainy season in April and the rainfall reaches its maximum in June. Then, the rainy area moves to the upper part of the Yangtze River Basin in July and flood water flowing into the lake from upstream increases significantly. The rainy season may continue until the end of September. The flow regime of Dongting Lake maintains the same temporal pattern as the rainfall regime. The flood season is from April to September. In general, flood water comes mainly from the catchment from April to June and from water diversion of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River from July to September. The annual runoff from Dongting Lake to the Yangtze River is 278.6 km3/a (8,830 m3/s), of which to 92.3 km3/a (2,920 m3/s) is received from the Yangtze River through the inlets. Influenced by the monsoon, the lake shows a significant seasonal change in its flow regime. The lake water level fluctuates dramatically throughout a year, up to 12.9 m (42 ft). The water surface area also varies with the fluctuation of the water level from thousands of square kilometers in the flood season to only a few hundred square kilometers in the dry season.[4][5]

History

The earliest rice paddies yet discovered in the world were in the Liyang plain, which was then on the western edge of Dongting lake.

Han Dynasty, Yunmeng Marsh (雲夢大澤; Yúnmèng dàzé literally "Great Marsh of Cloud Dream"), which lies to the north of Dongting Lake in Hubei Province, served as the main flood-basin of the Yangtze. The rich sediment of the marsh attracted farmers. Embankments were built, keeping the river out, and the Dongting Lake area south of the Yangtze gradually became the river's main flood-basin. The Han state was actively involved in the colonization of the region, maintaining dikes in Liyang to protect farmland from flooding.[7]

At that time, Dongting Lake was China's largest freshwater lake. Because of its size, it gained the name Eight-hundred-li-Dongting (八百里洞庭). Nowadays, it is the second-largest, after Poyang Lake, as much of the lake has been turned into farmland.[8][9]

Culture and mythology

Hermit Fisherman on Lake Dongting, by Wu Zhen (1287–1354)

The area is well known in

dragon-king
is said to live at the bottom of the lake.

Junshan Yinzhen tea.[13] The basin of Dongting Lake and its surrounding area is famous for its scenic beauty, which has been encapsulated in the phrase "Hunan of the Xiao and Xiang rivers" (潇湘湖南; Xiāo-Xiāng Húnán).[citation needed
]

The scenery of the

Song Dynasty, it became the fashion to paint this region's scenery in a set of eight scenes, usually entitled as Eight Views of Xiaoxiang. It is also said that Han Shizhong settled in the region after retired from military service. The fashion spread to Japan, where eventually other famous places were substituted for the Xiao and Xiang rivers. [citation needed] One of the famous ponds based on the geography of the lake is at the Daikaku-ji
in Kyoto.

Environmental issues

The agricultural colonization of the region began in ancient times, and by the 19th century much of the lake's shallower areas had been destroyed to create farmland.[15] After 1949 a new round of wetland drainage destroyed much of what remained, leaving only a fraction of the original wetland intact, though some of that area has subsequently been returned to wetland conditions. Nonetheless, along with Poyang Lake, it remains one of the largest lakes in China, and is an important wintering area for migratory birds. It has been designated as a protected Ramsar site since 1992.[1]

In 2007 fears were expressed that China's

Poyang
and Dongting Lakes. The 2007 population levels were less than half the 1997 levels, and the population continues to drop at a rate of 7.3 per cent per year. Pressure on the finless porpoise population on Poyang Lake comes from the high numbers of ships passing through, as well as sand dredging.[16]

After flooding of the Yangtze River in late June 2007, approximately 2 billion mice were displaced from the islands of the lake when water was released from the Three Gorges Dam to control the excess. The mice invaded surrounding communities, damaging crops and dikes and forcing the government to construct walls and ditches to control the population.[17] Villagers killed an estimated 2 million mice by beating them to death or using poisons, which also had an adverse effect on their predators.[18]

The lake was also featured on news services as having a problem with schistosoma and malaria infected mosquitoes.[citation needed]

A restoration project, the Sino-Norwegian Project of Biodiversity Protection Management, began in 2005. According to a 2007 article in the China Daily, "[The Dongting Lake area] will be restored to a sustainable biodiversity environment within five to 10 years".[19]

Major cities on the lake

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b "Dong dongting hu". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b Wei Ming (2013), p. 39.
  3. ^ Wei Ming (2013), p. 39–40.
  4. ^ Xi-jun, Lai; Zi-min, Wang (2017). Flood management of Dongting Lake after operation of Three Gorges Dam.
  5. ^ "Yuan Jiang".
  6. ^ Zhang Chi 張弛, “The Qujialing-Shijiahe Culture in the Middle Yangzi River Valley,” in A Companion to Chinese Archaeology, ed. Anne P. Underhill (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2013), 510–34.
  7. ^ Brian Lander, “State Management of River Dikes in Early China: New Sources on the Environmental History of the Central Yangzi Region.” T’oung Pao 100.4-5 (2014): 325–362.
  8. ^ Wei Ming (2013), p. 40.
  9. ^ Peter Perdue, Exhausting the Earth: State and Peasant in Hunan 1500–1850 (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Council on East Asian Studies, 1987).
  10. ^ Wei Ming (2013), p. 41.
  11. ISBN 978-0-674-00782-6
    .
  12. ^ Murck (2000), pp. 9–10.
  13. ^ Wei Ming (2013), p. 41–42.
  14. ^ Ueki et al. 1999, pp. 133–4.
  15. ^ Brian Lander, “State Management of River Dikes in Early China: New Sources on the Environmental History of the Central Yangzi Region.” T’oung Pao 100 (2014): 287-324; Peter Perdue, Exhausting the Earth: State and Peasant in Hunan 1500–1850 (Cambridge: Harvard University Council on East Asian Studies, 1987).
  16. ^ "Poyang Lake: Saving the finless porpoise". 9 March 2007. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-02-08. www.chinadialogue.net - Poyang Lake saving the finless porpoise
  17. ^ "2 Billion Chinese Mice Overrun Lake Area". Archived from the original on 2007-07-11. Retrieved 2007-07-10. www.physorg.com - 2 Billion Chinese Mice Overrun Lake Area
  18. ^ Watts, Jonathan (2007-07-17). "'Rats' on the menu after China swamped by 2 billion rodents". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  19. Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China
    .)

Sources

  • Wei Ming (2013). "Dongting Lake". Famous Lakes in China (in English and Chinese). Huangshan City, Anhui: Huangshan Publishing House.
    ISBN 978-7-5461-2500-8
    .
  • OCLC 41025662
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lake Dongting.
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