East Lake (Wuhan)
East Lake is a large freshwater lake within the city limits of Wuhan, China, the largest or the second largest urban lake in China. Wuhan's East Lake covers an area of 88 square kilometers. It is one of the 5A tourist zones of China, and admits over a million people yearly. It is one of the largest sites in Huazhong District. It is also the largest "City Lake" in China. East Lake is made of four areas, Ting Tao, Moshan, Luo Yan Island and Museum of Hubei Province.
File:The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and the President of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Xi Jinping inside a house boat, in Wuhan’s East Lake, China on April 28, 2018.JPG|thumb|The General Secretary of the [Chinese Communist Party] Xi Jinping and the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on Wuhan's East Lake in 2018.
One end of Moshan features a Daoist temple built over the putative site of where one of the characters in Romance of the Three Kingdoms performed special Qimen Dunjia rites before the famous battle of Red Cliffs. No one knows precisely the actual location, but the Moshan site was an archeological dig in the early part of the twentieth century.
Environmental issues
The lake was cut off from the Yangtze River in 1957. Water quality has deteriorated since because of 180,000 tons discharge of wastewater into the lake per day. Each year, about 441 tons of nitrogen and 40 tons of phosphorus flow into the lake. Most parts of the lake have been assessed as eutrophicated, unsuitable for drinking and many recreational purposes.Notable sites around the lake
In clockwise order, starting from the southwest corner:- Liyuan Park - a large urban park on the west side of the lake, with a popular free swimming area
- Hubei Provincial Museum
- Hubei Art Museum; the two museums are across the street from each other, just a block from the main entrance to Liyuan Park
- Wuhan Donghu Ocean Aquarium, proud of its flock of penguins
- Wuhan Railway Station - a few km northeast of the lake
- Moshan Scenic Area, including East Lake [Cherry Blossom Park]
- The "Chu Castle"
- Wuhan Botanical Garden
- East Lake Cherry Blossom Park
- China University of Geosciences, Wuhan Campus
- "Ba Yi" open-air swimming pool
- Houshan but no monkeys. One must travel to nearby Forest Park to see live monkeys, some un-caged.
- Wuhan University main campus
- Mao Zedong Memorial Residence: The former residence of Mao Zedong, where he stayed 48 times. It is also known as "Mao Zedong's Other Hometown" by locals.
- Qu Yuan Memorial Hall: A tower dedicated to Quyuan along with a statue of him.
In 2010, plans for extensive new development on the lake shores caused widespread criticism among the citizenry.
Fishing
The East Lake has long been used by local fishermen. According to the 1977 statistics, the annual fish yield of the 1500-hectare fishing area of the lake was 450 kg/ha. The introduction of better fish management techniques have allowed the yields to increase in the following decade, with1840 tons by 1995.
The main species with which the lake is stocked are the silver carp and the bighead carp.