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Thousand-Island Lake
Located in Chun'an County of Zhejiang Province, the Thousand-Island Lake is among the first 44 national scenic spots proclaimed by the State Council, and also the largest national forest park at present. It is a man-made reservoir formed during the construction of Xin'anjiang Hydropower Station in 1959, with the West Lake in the east and Mt. Huangshan in the west.
With a storage capacity of 17.8 billion cubic meters, the lake covers an area of 575 square kilometers and is studded with a total of 1,078 islands of varying sizes. The rate of vegetation cover on the shore has reached upwards of 90 percent and for this reason the place is nicknamed 'Green Lake of a Thousand Islands'. The water is crystal clear, the mountains that skirt the lake are richly wooded and the islands are clustered together to form a labyrinth of canals.
The whole lake area is divided into five small parts, namely the northeast part, the southeast part, the northwest part, the southwest part and the central part. After large-scale reconstructions in recent years, the lake formed 14 scenic spots of 6 sections including the Xian Hill, the Screen Peak, the Plum Peak, the Dragon Hill, the Animal-Series, and the Stone Forest.
The Stone Forest is composed of three sections of Blue Jade Plateau, Hawksbill Hill, and West Mountain Plateau, covering a total area of 20 square kilometers. As one of the fourth largest stone forests in China, it is named the first stone forest in East China for its large coverage, peculiar scenes and significant height.
