Surveys · Lishui Nature

Surveys

Entries written here: the lie of the land and how the river system is divided, the accounts given for the source of the Qinhuai, and the protected-area system with the record of ecological work. Divergent official figures are set side by side.

Entry text is written here, never transcribed wholesale from copyrighted sources.

Published entries 　8 Content updated to 　2026-09-27

Survey Landforms and Drainage Landforms and Drainage of Lishui A stepped terrain falling from south-east to north-west, and the parting of the Qinhuai and Shijiu Lake systems Lishui lies in the Ningzhenyang hill country, falling from south-east to north-west in steps, with hills covering 72.5 per cent of its area and a district high point of 368.5 m that no official document ties to a named mountain. The divide between the Shijiu Lake and Qinhuai systems parts the district in the middle, sending northern water to the Qinhuai and southern water to Shijiu Lake. By catchment the district divides into the Qinhuai basin, 464.82 sq km, the Shijiu Lake basin, 599.39 sq km, and 2.73 sq km in the south-east belonging to the western Taihu region. This entry sets the competing official figures for area, reservoir counts and climate side by side. LandscapeWaterwayHills Confidence: Qualifiedunchecked Long-form Survey Landforms and Drainage Source of the Qinhuai River The several official accounts of the Qinhuai's southern source, and the course of that source system from Donglu Mountain down to its junction outside the district The Qinhuai River has a northern and a southern source, and the official accounts of the southern one differ and point at different things. The Jiangsu Provincial Qinhuai River Water Conservancy Project Management Office writes the southern source as the Lishui River rising on Donglu Mountain; the Jiangsu Provincial Local Gazetteers Office and the district government's overview page call Donglu Mountain a landmark mountain of the Qinhuai headwaters; the district government office's ecological rivers and lakes action plan names the Yigan River as the Qinhuai source; and a survey report reprinted by the Nanjing water bureau also calls Donglu Mountain the southern source. This entry sets all three kinds of account side by side, each with its source and year, and follows the source system stage by stage from Donglu Mountain and Zhongshan Reservoir by the Yigan River and the Lishui River to the junctions outside the district. WaterwayLandscapeWater conservancy Confidence: Qualifiedunchecked Long-form Survey Landforms and Drainage The changing face of Shijiu Lake The reclamation of the 1970s, two rounds of dike strengthening since 1999, and the protected status the lake has held since 2019 Shijiu Lake is the boundary lake between Lishui and Gaochun districts and Dangtu County in Anhui. This article sets out the changes in four periods that the sources support: reclamation of the lake shores in the 1970s cut the open water from 266.7 sq km to 207.6 sq km (Gaochun District wording, with only a rough date); strengthening of the lake dikes in 1999 to 2002 brought the flood standard to about a 1-in-20 to 1-in-40 year event; the 2014 dike improvement works gave the Lishui reach 34.73 km of dikes, a design flood level of 12.50 m and a 1-in-40 year standard; and in November 2019 a provincial wetland park was established (planned area 91.7 sq km), followed by listing in the Jiangsu provincial list of important wetlands (9140.71 ha). The four kinds of area figure mean different things, and this article sets them side by side without converting between them. LakesWetlandsProtected areas Confidence: Qualifiedunchecked Long-form Survey Landforms and Drainage The climate of Lishui Five sets of climate figures from official and technical texts, with their differences and their uses set out Lishui has a subtropical monsoon climate, but its climate figures have no single district-wide basis. This article sets out the five sets found for this site: the District Government's Geographical Position page (mean annual temperature 16.4°C, relative humidity 76%, annual rainfall 1204.3 mm, annual sunshine 1980.0 hours), the High-Standard Farmland Construction Plan 2022-2025 (16.6°C, 1491.5 mm, 2205.6 hours), the Near-Term Implementation Plan of the Territorial Spatial Plan (15.5°C, 2146 hours, 1037 mm), the environmental impact report form for the Dongping Subdistrict sewer project (1037 mm, 15.5°C) and a study of the Fangshan small watershed (16.4°C, 1147.0 mm, 1969.0 hours, frost-free period 224 days). Annual rainfall runs from 1037 mm to 1491.5 mm and mean annual temperature from 15.5°C to 16.6°C; as no source states its period of record or its weather station, this article sets the figures side by side without averaging them or choosing between them. LandscapeSeasonal customs Confidence: Qualifiedunchecked Long-form Ecology and conservation Ecology and Protection The Ecological Protection Red Line The three sets of figures of 2020, the territorial spatial master plan and the ecological space control-area optimisation plan, and the difference between the ecological protection red line and ecological space control areas Lishui's ecological protection red line is drawn in more than one set of figures, differing in year, issuing body and scope. The 2020 figure (district finance bureau's performance self-assessment report on transfer payments, under Su Zheng Fa [2020] No. 1) gives four national-level red-line areas totalling 204.4 sq km and ten provincial-level ecological space areas totalling 248.41 sq km. The territorial spatial master plan (2021-2035) gives five areas totalling 119.7322 sq km, and Su Zheng Fu [2025] No. 3 puts it at "no less than 119.7322 sq km". The ecological space control-area optimisation plan (draft for comment, September 2025) gives nineteen ecological space control areas totalling 17,392.1123 ha, and records a current ecological protection red line of 49,679.9381 ha. The red line and the control areas are two different figures and may not be conflated; this entry sets the three sets of figures and the two compositions side by side, choosing none and adding none. Protected areasWetlandsDrinking water sources Confidence: Qualifiedunchecked Long-form Ecology and conservation Ecology and Protection The Natural Protected Area System of Lishui The natural protected areas, wetland parks, important wetlands, important habitat for migratory birds and municipal scenic areas — the several lists, how their scopes differ, and the year each designation was approved Lishui's protected statuses belong to several different lists with different statistical scopes. The public version of the Territorial Spatial Master Plan (2021-2035) lists three nature reserves: Wuxiang Mountain national-level forest park, Shijiu Lake local-level wetland park and Dongping Lake local-level wetland park. The pre-approval notice of the ecological protection and restoration plan (July 2026) gives a wetland-carrier figure of two provincial wetland parks and three wetland protection sub-areas. Place by place, Wuxiang Mountain was approved as a national forest park by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration in January 2015 (Lin Chang Xu Zhun [2015] No. 32); Dongping Lake Provincial Wetland Park was approved by the provincial forestry bureau on 20 March 2019 (Su Lin Shi [2019] No. 10, planned area 758.5 ha); Shijiu Lake Provincial Wetland Park was approved in November 2019 (planned area 91.7 sq km); Shijiu Lake is also on the provincial list of important wetlands (9,140.71 ha); and the Shijiu Lake wetland was entered in the national List of Important Habitats for Terrestrial Wildlife (First Batch) in 2023. Donglu Mountain and Shijiu Lake also appear in a 2011 municipal schedule as municipal scenic areas, and no approval year has been verified for the Shijiu Lake scenic area. Protected areasWetlandsForests Confidence: Qualifiedunchecked Long-form Survey Landforms and Drainage Water Systems and the Watershed Divide of Lishui The three catchments of the Qinhuai River, Shijiu Lake and western Taihu, and the divide that runs east to west across the middle of the district Lishui's watercourses fall into three catchments by area: the Qinhuai basin, 464.82 sq km; the Shijiu Lake basin, 599.39 sq km; and 2.73 sq km of hill country in the south-east corner belonging to the western Taihu region. The divide between the Qinhuai and Shijiu Lake systems runs east to west across the middle of the district, sending northern water to the Qinhuai and southern water to Shijiu Lake, with Tiansheng Bridge Sluice as the north-south marker and Xiheng Mountain a ridge line at its western end. This entry sets the competing official figures for river allegiance, for the line of the divide and for the number of main rivers side by side. WaterwayLandscapeWater conservancy Confidence: Qualifiedunchecked Long-form Ecology and conservation Ecology and Protection Wetland and Migratory Birds The wetland designations of Shijiu Lake, the year-by-year counts of wintering tundra swans and the birdwatching points, with the return of fishing grounds to the lake and courteous birdwatching Shijiu Lake is Lishui's chief wetland and bird habitat. On designations, the Lishui Shijiu Lake Provincial Wetland Park was approved by the provincial forestry bureau in November 2019 (planned area 91.7 sq km); Shijiu Lake is also on the Jiangsu Provincial List of Important Wetlands (9,140.71 ha); and the Shijiu Lake wetland was entered in the national List of Important Habitats for Terrestrial Wildlife (First Batch) in 2023, with the Oriental stork, swan goose, greater white-fronted goose and tundra swan as its main protected species and the provincial wetland park as its existing main form of protection. On birds, the tundra swan counts come in several year-by-year figures: 1,000-2,000 ten years ago, over 30,000 in the winter of 2020, about 5,000 in recent years, a peak in 2025, and 5,382 in the 2026 synchronized survey, besides a peak figure of "up to ten thousand". This entry sets the figures side by side, averaging none and shortening none. WetlandsMigratory birdsBirdwatching Confidence: Qualifiedunchecked Long-form

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