Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area

　　Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area - Located in the northwest of Huangshan District, Huangshan City, between Mount Huang and Mount Jiuhua, it is an important part of Anhui Province’s “Two Mountains and One Lake” (Mount Huang, Mount Jiuhua, and 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. Here, it was one of the filming locations for the TV series "Dream of the Red Chamber", and it has hosted national competitions such as the National Race Walking Championships, the National Triathlon Championships, and the China International Walking Festival. Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area has successively received titles such as China’s Most Beautiful Place, 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 Ping Lake Town has been awarded the titles of National Environmentally Beautiful Town and Provincial Best Tourism Town.
　　The Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area Management Committee was established in 1999 as a working body representing the Huangshan District Committee and the Huangshan District People’s Government, responsible for the development, construction, management, and protection of the Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area. Tai Ping Lake Town was formed in February 2006 through the merger of the former Tai Ping Lake Town and Guangyang Township, located at the core of the lake area. The town 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 Ping Lake Town began joint office operations, implementing a system of “four signs, one team, one decision-making” structure, with five major offices: Party and Government Affairs, Social Affairs, Economic Development, Tourism Development, and Planning and Construction. Through joint office work, shared vision, and combined efforts, the political and economic resources of Tai Ping Lake were integrated, regional affairs management was optimized, and leapfrog development of Tai Ping Lake was better achieved.
　　Tai Ping Lake boasts exceptional ecology and first-class 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 remains consistently above 20,000 per cubic centimeter for long periods, dozens of times that of cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, with an air quality excellence rate of 100%, making it a true natural oxygen bar. Tai Ping Lake is renowned for its water, which meets the national first-class standard year-round, and is hailed as the Jade of the South, the Companion of Mount Huang, and the Geneva of the East. The contemporary poet Shuo Wang once wrote about Tai Ping Lake: “Heavenly Lake is not as intimate, Tai Lake not as serene; the Three Gorges not as lush, the Li River not as misty; the Fuchun not as lofty, West Lake not as expansive; Emperor Qianlong not as blessed with such views, the South not as rich in such waters.”
　　Tai Ping Lake is abundant in produce and known for its specialties. Over 580 species of wild plants, 240 species of animals, and more than 40 species of fish have been identified here. It is rich in agricultural and sideline products such as rice, tea, timber, bamboo, fish, and watermelon, as well as specialty products like fruits, seedlings, ganoderma, wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and medicinal herbs. It also possesses abundant mineral resources such as molybdenum and sand, as well as hydropower resources. In particular, the green tea along the lakeshore is famous far and wide, being the origin of China’s Top Ten Famous Teas – Tai Ping Hou Kui, and the main production area of Huangshan Maofeng. The Tai Ping Hou Kui produced here won a gold medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and in 2007, it was gifted by President   to former Russian President Putin as a state gift tea.
　　Tai Ping Lake is rich in culture and steeped in history. Dinosaur egg fossils from the Cretaceous period 75 million years ago and the Neolithic Zhongjia Mountain site have been discovered around the lake. The lakebed “holds” numerous cultural relics and historic sites, such as the thousand-year-old ancient 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 inspired Li Bai’s poem: “The azaleas have bloomed, spring is almost over; I shall return to Lingyang to fish at dusk.” Later generations traced the story of “Qu Yuan’s exile to Lingyang” to this place. Poets from the Tang Dynasty such as Li Bai, Luo Yin, and Du Xunhe left their footprints here. Zhu Xi, a Neo-Confucian scholar from the Southern Song Dynasty, inscribed the two characters “Xiuyin” (Beautiful Shade) on a stone by the lake, which still lies quietly there. The area nurtured Su Xuelin, a literary giant of the May Fourth era who was as renowned as Bing Xin and Lin Huiyin, and is home to the heartwarming tale between Premier Zhou and the open-minded gentry by the lake.
　　Tai Ping Lake enjoys convenient transportation and a superior location. It lies at the center of the “One Lake Connecting Two Mountains” in southern Anhui’s 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, the Taoist sacred site of Qiyun Mountain, and the historic ancient city of She County. It is also about 400 kilometers from major Yangtze River Delta cities such as 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 He-Tong-Huang Expressway, travel time from Tai Ping Lake to the “Two Mountains” is about half an hour, and to surrounding scenic spots about an hour and a half.
　　Tai Ping Lake holds great potential and strong momentum for development. During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, the fiscal revenue of Tai Ping Lake 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 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 Tenth Five-Year Plan period. A total of 28 projects were introduced, with a total agreed investment of 6.2 billion yuan and actual funds in place of 1.95 billion yuan. The agreed total investment for node development at Tai Ping Lake exceeded 10 billion yuan. A number of leisure and resort projects such as the Crouching Tiger Golf Course, the International Bamboo and Rattan Center, and the 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 Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, to thoroughly implement the strategic plan of the Huangshan Municipal Party Committee and Government for building a modern international tourist city, and the important decision of the Huangshan District Party Committee and Government to devote all efforts to constructing Tai Ping Lake, the Tai Ping Lake Scenic Area and Tai Ping Lake Town will follow the development approach of “building projects around tourism, opening commerce around tourism, planting agriculture around tourism, and running industry around tourism”. They will vigorously develop a regional economy led by tourism, accelerate the creation of a tourism distribution center based on the tourism wharf, a tourism service center centered on the location of the town government, and a tourism resort center supported by lakeside tourism projects. They aim to comprehensively enhance reception capacity, vacation functions, and brand impact, and accelerate the formation of a Tai Ping Lake tourism service industry cluster. The goal is to achieve 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 area, making it truly the tourist distribution center, vacation center, and tourism information center of the “Two Mountains and One Lake” tourism region.