When it comes to Taihu County, most people mistakenly think it has something to do with Taihu Lake, one of the five largest freshwater lakes in China. Actually, it is not. Taihu Lake is located in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and Taihu County is a county under the jurisdiction of Anqing City, Anhui Province. Historically, Taihu County was named "Taihu Lake" because of its large and small lakes, and "Great Lake" was pronounced as "Tai" in the local dialect.
Huating Lake, located at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain and the north bank of the Yangtze River, is about 8 kilometers away from the center of Taihu County, and it can be reached by car for more than 10 minutes. Today, Huating Lake is a national 4A-level tourist attraction with Huating Lake as its core. The scenic spot consists of Huating Lake, Lion Mountain, Xifeng Cave, Buddhist Temple, Longshan and other scenic spots, which are not only beautiful in scenery, but also very profound in cultural heritage.
If you have been to Qiandao Lake in Hangzhou before, you will find that the scenery of Huating Lake is completely comparable to Qiandao Lake. Like Qiandao Lake, Huating Lake was formerly an artificial reservoir, which was built in the late 1950s and mainly used for flood control, water storage, irrigation and shipping. Later it evolved into a tourist attraction, but Qiandao Lake in Hangzhou is more famous.
You need to buy tickets to visit the core scenic spot of Huating Lake, but the tickets are not expensive. Everyone can visit 30 yuan, and of course they can also visit along the lakeshore. In addition to enjoying the natural scenery, the most important way to visit Huating Lake is to take a boat and feel the blue waves of Huating Lake.
When you enter Huating Lake Scenic Area, the first thing you see is a lotus square with a giant lotus sculpture built on it. If you know anything about Huating Lake, you should know that it has a deep relationship with Buddhism. Huating Lake is one of the cradles of Zen Buddhism in China, and there are many famous temples on the surrounding mountains, such as Xifeng Temple, Haihui Temple and Fotu Temple.
Huating Lake is surrounded by lush mountains, among which there are 16 peaks over 800 meters above sea level. General Mountain, the highest mountain in Taihu County, is also here, with an altitude of 1 100 meters above sea level. In addition, there are Lion Mountain, Longshan Mountain, Tianyun Mountain and Phoenix Mountain. If you use Xifeng Temple, you can stand on a high place overlooking Huating Lake, and the scenery is particularly good.
The most exciting thing about visiting Huating Lake is taking a speedboat. Of course, the speedboat is extra. There are many islands in Huating Lake, which are embedded in this green world like bright pearls. In addition, the mountains around Huating Lake are rolling and the scenery is naturally very beautiful.
Zhao Puchu, a famous Buddhist leader and calligrapher, visited Huating Lake after returning to his hometown of Taihu County. After seeing the beautiful scenery in front of him, he was deeply moved and wrote a poem of praise, "Enjoy yourself, mountains and valleys shine everywhere."
I have been to Qiandao Lake many times before, and I feel that the scenery here is not bad at all, and there are few tourists, giving people a relatively quiet feeling.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the ecological environment of Huating Lake has been well preserved so far, and it has a large wetland with complete ecological functions, attracting many migratory birds to inhabit here every year. When we visited Huating Lake, we saw many wild water ducks on an island.