Lake Dian
| Dianchi Lake | |
|---|---|
Dianchi Lake
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| Location | Yunnan |
| Coordinates | 24°48′02″N 102°40′17″E / 24.80056°N 102.67139°ECoordinates: 24°48′02″N 102°40′17″E / 24.80056°N 102.67139°E |
| Type | Freshwater |
| Primary outflows | Pudu River |
| Basin countries | China |
| Max. length | 39 km (24 mi) |
| Surface area | 298 km2 (115 sq mi) |
| Average depth | 4.4 m (14 ft) |
| Surface elevation | 1,886.5 m (6,189 ft) |
Dianchi Lake (Chinese: , Diānchí), also known as Lake Dian and Kunming Lake (, Kūnmínghú), is a large lake located on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau close to Kunming, Yunnan, in southern China. Its nickname is the "Sparkling Pearl Embedded in a Highland" and it was the model for the Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace in Beijing. Its name is the source of Yunnan's Chinese abbreviation .
It is a freshwater fault lake at 1,886.5 m (6,189 ft) above sea level. The lake covers 298 km2 (115 sq mi). It is 39 km (24 mi) long from north to south, and the average depth is 4.4 m (14 ft). It is the eighth largest lake in China and the largest in Yunnan Province.
The Chinese character for the lake is a phonosemantic compound of the radical ("water") and the character , whose current pronunciation is zhēn but whose Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as *tin.
Dianchi Lake was the site of the capital of the independent kingdom of the Cuan (爨) during the first millennium AD. At that time, it was known as Kunchuan (昆川).
Pollution is a major problem for the lake. In the city of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, parts of which are subtropical, there was traditionally no talk of water shortage, since the city is right next to one of Asia's biggest freshwater lakes. But 90 percent of Kunming's wastewater was pumped untreated into the lake until the first wastewater plant was built in 1990. In addition, much of the marsh system around the lake was destroyed during the Great Leap Forward in a misguided effort to raise rice production by filling the marshes in with trucked-in soil. Agricultural runoff is also a major problem.
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