Lake Taiping ( Lake Peace )

Lake Taiping is quite young, it's not on the map until 1970. It was in 1970 that a dam was built on Shuxi River which is the upper reaches of Qingyi River. Qingyi River is a branch of Yangtze River. A reservoir was formed when the dam was completed, and called Chencun Reserve.

To better promote it and develop the tourist industry here, this reservoir was renamed Lake Taiping in 1979, for most part of the lake lies in Taiping County that is today's Huangshan District. In Chinese, Taiping means peace or peaceful. So it can be also called Lake Peace, or Lake Taipinghu (Hu means lake in Chinese)

Taiping Lake is the largest fresh water man-made lake in Anhui Province with a water area of 88 square kilometers. The water level of the lake is 119 meters in elevation, with an average depth of 40 meters, a maximum sounding of 70 meters. It is 80 kilometers long from east to west, something of the length of Lijiang River from Guilin to Yangshuo.

Taipinghu Lake is an irregularly shaped one. Its central part is wide, with a maximum width of 6 kilometers, every visitors cruising in the center part are sure to love the stillness and surrounding blue expanse of lake. Its east and west parts are narrow and winding, full of small gorges as narrow as 150 meters. You'll be impressed by its secluded limpid water and verdured hills, a smaller Three Gorges but with clean and still river.

A person once point out its three major features: cleanness, domination of green & blue, reflections.
The water is quite clean and clear, free from industrial pollution. Cleanness is the base of its natural beauty.
The view of the lake is dominated by the color of green and blue: the surrounding mountains are green, the sky above is blue, parts of the water is green where the mountains are mirrored, parts of the lake is blue when it just reflects sky and clouds. All you can see on the lake is green and blue, that's the main body of the beauty.
The mountains, sky and clouds are mirrored in the lake, the lake also reflects its flickering lights and colors on the mountains and trees. These reflection and mirror connect each items as a whole, reflection is the beauty additive.

Lake Taiping is a shining pearl of our city, a mate to Mt.Huangshan nestling in the north side of the mountain, It's well situated between Mt.Huangshan and a famous Buddhist mountain - Mt.Jiuhua. With the help of Taiping Cable-car, the north access to Mt.Huangshan is quite convenient, Lake Taiping is surely getting more and more popular, it's a perfact resort for those who want a relief after climbing the mountain, an escape into blessed silence. It's a must for those who want to go fishing, cruising or yachting, or just enjoy the lake scenery, taste the white tender small whitebait and spend leisure hours as a vacationers.