Qiandao Lake:
The Thousand Island Lake and Ancient Submerged Cities


Qiandao Lake or the Thousand Island Lake is located in Zhejiang, China, about 150 kilometers from the city of Hangzhou. It is an artificial lake formed after the completion of the Xin'an River hydroelectric station. In 1959, in order to build the Xin'anjiang Reservoir the valley was flooded with water resulting in a lake or reservoir 573 square km in area and with a storage capacity of 17.8 cubic km. The lake is so called because it is dotted with 1,078 large islands and a few thousand smaller ones across it.

But what lies underneath the lake is perhaps more interesting and worthy than the lake itself.
Before the valley was flooded, there stood at the foot of the Wu Shi mountain (Five Lion Mountain) two magnificent ancient cities - Shi Cheng and He Cheng. Shi Cheng was built more than 1300 years ago in 621 AD during the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907). Both He Cheng and Shi Cheng were drowned in September 1959 when the Chinese government decided that it needed a new hydroelectric power station and a reservoir to feed the ever growing population in the city of Hangzhou. Along with the two ancient towns, another 27 towns, 1,377 villages, almost 50,000 acres of farmland and thousands of residential homes were flooded. About 290,000 people were relocated for the project

In the pic:The city of Shi cheng under water. (Photo: Chinese National Geography)