Qiandao Lake
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Qiandao Lake

Qiandao Lake

Forested reservoir lake in Zhejiang, dotted with drowned hilltops and the submerged ancient city of Shicheng.

Qiandao Lake — the Thousand Islands Lake — is one of the more melancholy landscapes in China, though it does not immediately look it. The reservoir was created in 1959 when the Xin'an River valley was flooded for the first large dam built in the People's Republic, submerging two ancient county towns and several hundred villages in the process. What remains above water is an emerald expanse dotted with 1,078 forested islands, the drowned hilltops of what was once a densely populated valley. The water is startlingly clear — it supplies much of Hangzhou's drinking water — and the islands are almost entirely cloaked in green.

The submerged city of Shicheng, Lion City, was founded during the Eastern Han dynasty and lies intact at depths of twenty to forty metres, its gates and carved stone lions preserved by the cold, sediment-free water. Divers can visit with a licensed operator, making it one of the few sites in the world where you can swim through a complete ancient city. Above the waterline, tourist boats run circuits between the named islands — Monkey Island, Snake Island, Bird Island — which have been stocked with wildlife for visitor entertainment, a more cheerful but less profound experience.

The lake is about two hours from Hangzhou by road or a shorter hop on the high-speed rail spur that terminates here. The best way to see it is by hiring a small boat for a few hours rather than joining an organised tour, which tends to rush through the official highlights without time to find a quiet cove and swim in water that is, by Chinese standards, extraordinary.

Guide

Eating Out

Fish is the foundation of Qiandao Lake cooking, and the reservoir's clarity produces fish of unusual quality — grass carp, mandarin fish, and bighead carp with firm flesh and a clean flavour that comes from cold, clear water rather than the murkier conditions of lowland fish farms. The standard preparation is steamed whole fish with a light ginger and scallion dressing, and the quality difference between reservoir fish and farmed fish is immediately apparent.

The lakeside restaurants in Chunan and the smaller settlements around the shore cook the fish simply and well, with preserved bamboo shoots (a regional specialty from the surrounding hills), dried shrimp, and fermented tofu as accompaniments. Prices are modest by Hangzhou standards. For the most direct experience, several guesthouses on the smaller inhabited islands serve home-cooked fish meals from fish they catch themselves, and eating on an island terrace above the clear water is a better setting than any restaurant in Chunan.

Guide

Getting There

Qiandao Lake is reached by high-speed rail from Hangzhou on the Hangzhou-Huangshan line, which stops at Qiandaohu station (about forty minutes from Hangzhou). The station is on the eastern edge of the lake and taxis reach the main pier and Chunan town in about fifteen minutes. The rail connection has made Qiandao Lake very accessible as a day trip from Hangzhou, though an overnight stay gives time to explore the quieter parts of the lake that day-trippers miss.

By road, the lake is about two hours from Hangzhou by bus. Local buses from Chunan connect to the main viewing areas and the dam; a rented car or a taxi hired by the day is more practical for reaching the outlying parts of the lake and the smaller settlements.

Guide

Things to Do

Qiandao Lake's pleasures divide between the underwater world — diving in the submerged ancient city of Shicheng, the primary reason to make the journey — and the surface attractions of boat trips between forested islands, clear-water swimming, and the melancholy landscape of a drowned valley. The quality of the water is the unifying thread: it is startlingly clear by Chinese standards, and the clarity makes everything, above and below the surface, more rewarding.