Hongze Lake
| Hongze Lake | ||
|---|---|---|
| Hungtze Hu, Hung-tse Hu | ||
Primary inflows Huai River | Si River, Yellow River (historically) | |
| Primary outflows | Huai River | |
| Basin countries | China | |
| Hongze Lake | ||
|---|---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin Hóngzé táng | | |
| Wade–Giles | Hung-tse T'ang | |
Hongze Lake,
irrigation
.
Geography
Hongze Lake reaches an area of about 3 million
mu when its depth reaches 12.5 meters (41 ft),[1] making it the second-largest freshwater lake in Jiangsu[1] and the fourth-[2] or fifth-largest in the country,[1] behind lakes Poyang, Dongting, Tai, and Hulun. Hongze Lake's meandering shoreline usually runs around 365 kilometers (227 mi).[1]
History
The area that now forms Hongze Lake was an inlet of the
Qi
.
Under the
Jian'an 5 (around AD 200), a massive 30-li embankment intended to protect nearby farmland and the Hangou Canal and nearby settlements and farmland from floods of the Huai.[3][4]
Under the
Huaiyin.[2] The silt from the Yellow River began to obstruct the flow of the Huai and started to expand Hongze still farther,[2] ultimately quadrupling its original size.[citation needed] During this period, it became an important fishery and center of irrigated cropland.[2] It still forms the origin point of the North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal. Under the Yuan
, the course of the Grand Canal in the area was straightened to circumvent the lake.
Ming Zuling into Hongze Lake, from the Siku Quanshu edition of Pan Jixun
's Overview of River Management. Both Sizhou and the tomb were entirely submerged beneath Hongze Lake during a subsequent flood in 1680.Under the
honor his ancestors, whom he posthumously elevated to imperial status.[5] Under his son the Yongle Emperor, the Gaojia Weir was further expanded,[4] in part to protect the site. In Wanli 7 (c. 1579), Pan Jixun enlarged and reinforced the weir with stone along its then 40 to 42 kilometers (25 to 26 mi) of length.[6][4]
His mismanagement of the area's difficult hydrology allowed Sizhou to flood and threatened the tombs, leading to his demotion and dismissal.
By the
temple was lost in a flood.[6] In the early 1850s, the massive floods of the Yellow River that occasioned the Taiping Rebellion
restored the Yellow River entirely to its northern course, finally removing its inflow and siltation from the lake.
Under the
People's Republic of China, counties in Anhui that bordered the lake were ceded to Jiangsu in 1955 to allow unified administration of the lake. By the early 1960s, its water level had dropped enough that the stone statues of the Ming Zuling's sacred way were again visible along the shoreline. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, the provincial and national cultural preservation authorities excavated and restored the tombs, ultimately erecting a new 2,700 meters (1.7 mi) embankment to protect it from any further flooding.[5] In 1966, 1976, and 1985, the Hongze Embankment itself was reinforced and improved with more modern engineering and materials, particularly with additional barriers to break up the force of the rivers' and lake's waves against the levees.[6]
References
Citations
Bibliography
- "General Introduction of Hongze Tourism", Official site, Hongze: People's Government of Hongze county, 2008.
- "Historical Evolution", Official site, Huai'an: Huai'an Municipal Government, 30 January 2018.
- "Hongze Lake Scenic Zone", Official site, Huai'an: Huai'an Municipal Government, 5 February 2018.
- "Hongze Lake", Official site, Suqian: Sihong Hongze Lake Wetland Scenic Area, 3 September 2020.
- "Hongze Lake Embankment", Official site, Suqian: Sihong Hongze Lake Wetland Scenic Area, 7 September 2020.
- Danielson, Eric N. (December 2008), "The Ming Ancestor Tomb", China Heritage Quarterly, Canberra: Australian National University.
External links
- Lake Hongze English guide (Jiangsu.net)
| Five Great Lakes | freshwater lakes
| ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable salt lakes |
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| National Parks |
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| Protected wetlands |
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Nature Reserves | |||
| Major urban lakes | |||
| Reservoirs | |||
