Poyang Lake

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Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province.

The Poyang Lake (鄱阳湖), located in north Jiangxi Province, is the largest freshwater lake in China. With an area of 3,585 square kilometers, the lake provides a habitat for thousands of migratory birds and is abundant in fish and other aquatic wildlife.

Originally called Pengli Marsh, the lake is fed by the Xiu, Wu, Gan, Xin and Rao rivers and connects to the Yangtze River, the longest river in the country.

The lake is shaped like a huge gourd, wide in the south and narrow in the north. In 1945, after a Japanese troop ship with 200 sailors vanished without a trace, veiling the lake with deep mystery, Poyang Lake became known as "Chinese Bermuda."

However, water-levels at the lake have dropped below 10 meters during its annual dry season, exposing its grassland lakebed, affecting wetland vegetation growth and the over-wintering of wild fish and migratory birds in the past year.