Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area

Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area

Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction and a national wetland park.

Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area – Located in the northwest of Huangshan District, Huangshan City, nestled between Mount Huang and Mount Jiuhua, it is a key component of Anhui Province’s “Two Mountains and One Lake” (Mount Huang, Mount Jiuhua, Tai Ping Lake) tourism development strategy. The scenic area covers a total area of 312.9 square kilometers, with a water surface area of 88.6 square kilometers and a maximum water storage capacity of 2.4 billion cubic meters. It served as one of the filming locations for the TV series “Dream of the Red Chamber,” and has hosted events such as the National Race Walking Championships, National Triathlon Championships, and China International Walking Festival. The scenic area has successively been awarded titles including “The Most Beautiful Place in China,” National AAA-level Tourist Attraction, National Wetland Park, National Water Conservancy Scenic Area, China's Hotspot Lake Tourism Destination, and Provincial Civilized Tourist Scenic Area. Tai Pinghu Town has been recognized as a Nationally Beautiful Environment Township and the Provincial Best Tourist Township.

The Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area Management Committee was established in 1999 as an organization representing the Huangshan District Party Committee and the Huangshan District People’s Government, responsible for the development, construction, management, and protection of the Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area. Tai Pinghu Town was formed in February 2006 through the merger of the former Tai Pinghu Town and Guangyang Township, located at the core of the lake area. It covers an area of 164 square kilometers, governs 7 villages and 62 villager groups, with a total population of nearly 10,000. In March 2006, the Tai Ping Lake Management Committee and Tai Pinghu Town began operating under a joint office system, implementing a structure of “four signs, one team, one decision-making body,” with five major offices: Party and Government Affairs, Social Affairs, Economic Development, Tourism Development, and Planning and Construction. Through integrated governance and unified efforts, the political and economic resources of Tai Ping Lake have been consolidated, regional affairs management has been optimized, and the leapfrog development of Tai Ping Lake has been better achieved.

Tai Ping Lake boasts exceptional ecology and top-tier water scenery. The forest coverage rate in the scenic area exceeds 95%, which is 5.2 times the national average. The concentration of negative oxygen ions in the air consistently remains above 20,000 per cubic centimeter, dozens of times higher than that of cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, and the air quality excellence rate reaches 100%, making it a true natural oxygen bar. Tai Ping Lake is renowned for its water, which consistently meets national first-class standards, and is praised as the “Emerald of the South,” the “Companion of Mount Huang,” and the “Geneva of the East.” Contemporary poet Shuo Wang once described Tai Ping Lake as follows: “Heavenly Lake is not this intimate, Tai Lake is not this profound; the Three Gorges are not this verdant, the Li River is not this misty; the Fuchun is not this high and cool, West Lake is not this expansive; Emperor Qianlong did not have this view, the South does not have this waterscape.”

Tai Ping Lake is rich in produce and famous for its specialties. More than 580 species of wild plants, over 240 species of animals, and more than 40 species of fish have been identified here. The area is abundant in agricultural and sideline products such as rice, tea, timber, bamboo, fish, and watermelon, as well as specialty products like fruits, seedlings, lingzhi mushrooms, wood ear fungus, shiitake mushrooms, and medicinal herbs. It also possesses rich mineral resources such as molybdenum and sand, along with hydropower resources. Especially notable are the green teas along the lakeshore, which are widely renowned. This is the origin of Taiping Houkui, one of China’s Top Ten Famous Teas, and the main production area of Huangshan Maofeng. The Taiping Houkui tea produced here, after winning a gold medal at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, was gifted by President Xi Jinping to former Russian President Vladimir Putin as a state gift in 2007.

Tai Ping Lake is rich in culture and steeped in history. Dinosaur egg fossils from the Cretaceous period dating back 75 million years and the Neolithic Zhongjiashan Site have been discovered around the lake. The lakebed “holds” ancient relics such as the thousand-year-old city of Guangyang and the “Three-Li Qinhuai” Longmen Street. The legend of Dou Ziming from the Han Dynasty who cultivated immortality by fishing in Lingyang Mountain and caught a white fish has inspired Li Bai’s poem: “Azaleas bloom, spring is almost gone; I’ll return to Lingyang to fish late.” Later generations traced the “exile of Qu Yuan to Lingyang” to this place. Poets from the Tang Dynasty such as Li Bai, Luo Yin, and Du Xunhe left their footprints here. The stone inscription “Xiuyin” (Beautiful Shade) by Zhu Xi, a Neo-Confucian scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, still lies quietly by the lake. The area nurtured Su Xuelin, a literary giant of the May Fourth era who was as renowned as Bing Xin and Lin Huiyin, and has passed down the heartwarming story between Premier Zhou and the open-minded gentry by the lake.

Tai Ping Lake enjoys convenient transportation and a superior location. It is situated at the central point of the “One Lake Supporting Two Mountains” in the Southern Anhui tourism region, less than 30 kilometers from the northern gate of Mount Huang and the southern gate of Mount Jiuhua, and within 100 kilometers of nearby world cultural heritage sites such as Xidi and Hongcun Villages, the Taoist sacred site Qiyun Mountain, and the historic ancient city of She County. It is also about 400 kilometers from major Yangtze River Delta cities like Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Shanghai. With the completion of three high-speed railways — Beijing-Fuzhou, Hangzhou-Huangshan, and the Wan-Gan Railway double track — and the Hefei-Tongling-Huangshan Expressway, the travel time from Tai Ping Lake to the “Two Mountains” is about half an hour, and to surrounding scenic spots about one and a half hours.

Tai Ping Lake holds great potential and strong momentum for development. During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, the fiscal revenue of Tai Pinghu Town increased from 12.47 million yuan five years prior to 36.13 million yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 23.7%; the per capita net income of farmers rose from 3,244 yuan to 7,013 yuan, with an average annual increase of 16.7%. The number of tourists received, total tourism revenue, and ticket income of the Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area increased from 201,000 person-times, 11 million yuan, and 2.5 million yuan to 714,000 person-times, 43.167 million yuan, and 11.16 million yuan respectively, with average annual growth rates of 28.4%, 31.5%, and 34.9%. Cumulative fixed asset investment reached 1.81 billion yuan, nearly ten times that of the 10th Five-Year Plan period. A total of 28 projects were introduced, with a cumulative agreed investment of 6.2 billion yuan and actual capital in place of 1.95 billion yuan. The agreed total investment for node development at Tai Ping Lake exceeded 10 billion yuan. Leisure and resort projects such as the Crouching Tiger Golf Course, International Bamboo and Rattan Center, and Lilac Garden have been completed and opened for business. Industrial projects such as Vision Technology, Zhiming Crafts, and Xinhui Bao Household Goods have settled in the Huangshan Industrial Park, laying the foundation for industrial support and transforming the growth model for the town’s economic development.

During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, to thoroughly implement the strategic deployment of the Huangshan Municipal Party Committee and Government for building a modern international tourism city, and the important decision of the Huangshan District Party Committee and Government to devote full efforts to constructing Tai Ping Lake, the Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area and Tai Pinghu Town will follow the development approach of “building projects around tourism, opening commerce around tourism, cultivating agriculture around tourism, and running industry around tourism.” They aim to vigorously develop a regional economy led by tourism, accelerate the creation of a tourism distribution center based on the tourism dock, a tourism service center centered on the town government location, and a tourism resort center supported by lakeside tourism projects. They will comprehensively enhance reception capacity, vacation functions, and brand impact, and accelerate the formation of a tourism service industry cluster in Tai Ping Lake. The goal is to achieve a cumulative investment of 10 billion yuan in node development by 2015, with tourism reception reaching 2 million person-times, total revenue of 2 billion yuan, and direct income of 100 million yuan, driving an average annual fiscal revenue growth of over 15%, doubling the total to exceed 80 million yuan. The aim is to build Tai Ping Lake into a modern international tourism resort, making it truly the tourist distribution center, vacation center, and tourism information center of the “Two Mountains and One Lake” tourism region.

Tai Pinghu Town: Located at the southwestern foot of Mount Huang, hailed as the “National Treasure” and “World Natural and Cultural Heritage” – Mount Huang, Huangshan District’s Tai Pinghu Town was established in March 1992 as an emerging comprehensive tourism town. It is 30 kilometers from Mount Huang and 55 kilometers from Mount Jiuhua. Provincial Highway S103 runs through the town, making it a shining pearl on the golden tourism route of “Hangzhou – Qiandao Lake – Mount Huang – Tai Ping Lake – Mount Jiuhua – Hefei.”

Tai Pinghu Town administers seven administrative villages: Wangwangling, Tangjiaqian, Xinjian, Nan’an, Gumang, Shangpo, and Gongxing, with 35... More detailed information about Tai Pinghu Town++