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Taiping Lake is the largest fresh water man-made lake in Anhui Province with a water area of 88 square kilometers. It was in 1970 that a dam was built on Shuxi River which is the upper reaches of Qingyi River. Qingyi River is a branch of Yangtze River. A reservoir was formed when the dam was completed, and called Chencun Reserve. The water level of the lake is 119 meters in elevation, with an average depth of 40 meters, a maximum sounding of 70 meters. It is 80 kilometers long from east to west, something of the length of Lijiang River from Guilin to Yangshuo. 

To better promote it and develop the tourist industry here, this reservoir was renamed Lake Taiping in 1979, for most part of the lake lies in Taiping County that is today's Huangshan District. In Chinese, Taiping means peace or peaceful. So it can be also called Lake Peace, or Lake Taipinghu (Hu means lake in Chine） 

Taipinghu Lake is an irregularly shaped one. Its central part is wide, with a maximum width of 6 kilometers, every visitors cruising in the center part are sure to love the stillness and surrounding blue expanse of lake. Its east and west parts are narrow and winding, full of small gorges as narrow as 150 meters. You'll be impressed by its secluded limpid water and verdured hills, a smaller Three Gorges but with clean and still river.