Battle of Lake Poyang

Poyang Lake , located in Jiangxi Province, was once the largest freshwater lake in China. It once had a surface area of about 3,500 km², a... volume of 25 km³ and an average depth of eight meters. As of 2012, due to drought and the practice of storing water at the Three Gorges Dam the size of the lake has been reduced to about 200 km². The lake provides a habitat for half a million migratory birds, and is a favorite destination for birding. It is fed by the Gan, Xin, and Xiu rivers, which connect to the Yangtse through a channel. During the winter, the lake becomes home to a large number of migrating Siberian cranes, up to 90% of which spend the winter there. Historically, although Poyang Lake has also been called Pengli Marsh they are not the same. Before the Han Dynasty, the Yangtze followed a more northerly course through what is now Lake Longgan whilst Pengli Marsh formed the lower reaches of the Gan River. The area that is now Poyang Lake was a plain along the Gan River. Around AD 400, the Yangtze River switched to a more southerly course, causing the Gan River to back up and form Lake Poyang.
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