Lake · Jiangxi
Poyang Lake
鄱阳湖
China's largest freshwater lake, a sea in summer and a grassland in winter
Poyang Lake in northern Jiangxi is the largest freshwater lake in China, draining into the Yangtze at Hukou. Its area swings dramatically with the seasons, from several thousand square kilometres in the summer flood to scattered channels and pools in winter, and those exposed mudflats and meadows host almost the entire world population of the Siberian crane. The core of the lake is a national nature reserve and one of China's first Ramsar sites.
- Ramsar site · 1992
- National nature reserve (Poyang Lake)
Key facts
Overview
Poyang collects the water of five rivers — the Gan, Fu, Xin, Rao and Xiu — which together drain almost all of Jiangxi, and releases it into the Yangtze through a narrow neck at Hukou, beneath Mount Lu. In the rainy season, when the Yangtze runs high, water backs up into the lake, which spreads across a vast basin. In the dry season the level falls by ten metres or more, and the lake shrinks to river channels and a mosaic of shallow pools, sedge meadows and mudflats.
This rhythm makes Poyang one of the most important wetlands in Asia. From October to March it is the wintering ground of hundreds of thousands of waterbirds, including nearly all the world's Siberian cranes, and it is also a refuge for the Yangtze finless porpoise.
How the landscape formed
The lake occupies a subsiding basin south of the Yangtze, bounded by faults, into which the Jiangxi rivers have built deltas. Its shape is roughly an hourglass: a narrow northern arm leading to the Yangtze and a broad southern basin dotted with islands and deltas. Because the bed is so flat, a small change in water level exposes or floods great areas. Recent decades have seen more frequent and severe low-water periods, attributed to drought, reduced Yangtze flows and sand dredging, which have raised concern for the wetland's future.
Highlights
Wucheng
吴城
An old river-port town at the heart of the nature reserve, the main base for watching wintering cranes and geese.
Dahu Pool
大湖池
One of the seasonal lakes of the reserve where cranes gather to feed in winter.
Stone Bell Mountain
石钟山
A rocky hill at Hukou where the lake meets the Yangtze, famous for Su Shi's essay on the booming sound of waves in its caves.
Fallen Star Islet
落星墩
A tiny island with a pavilion that stands in water in summer and on dry land in winter.
Shoe Island
鞋山
A rocky island in the northern lake shaped like an upturned shoe.
Plants and wildlife
The winter wetland supports one of the largest concentrations of waterbirds in East Asia: cranes, storks, spoonbills, swans and hundreds of thousands of geese and ducks. The sedge meadows and submerged plant beds that feed them depend on the natural rise and fall of the lake. A ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze and its main lakes, in force since 2021, covers Poyang and aims to restore fish stocks and the porpoise population.
Plants
Sedge meadows
苔草
Carex meadows cover the exposed lake bed in winter and feed geese.
Eelgrass
苦草
Vallisneria beds whose tubers are the main winter food of Siberian cranes.
Wildlife
Siberian crane
白鹤
A critically endangered crane; almost the whole world population winters in the Poyang basin.
Oriental stork
东方白鹳
An endangered stork that winters on the lake in large numbers.
Yangtze finless porpoise
长江江豚
A critically endangered freshwater porpoise; the lake holds a large share of the remaining population.
Swan goose
鸿雁
A vulnerable goose whose main wintering area is the middle Yangtze lakes.
Culture and legend
The lake has been a highway and a battlefield. In 1363 Zhu Yuanzhang, future founder of the Ming dynasty, defeated his rival Chen Youliang in one of the largest naval battles in history on its waters. Jingdezhen porcelain travelled down the Chang River and across the lake to the Yangtze. Su Shi's essay “Record of Stone Bell Mountain” (1084), in which he tests earlier explanations of the mountain's name by visiting it at night, is a classic of Chinese prose.
Laoye Temple
老爷庙
A lakeside temple on a stretch of water notorious among boatmen for sudden storms and shipwrecks.
Battle of Lake Poyang
鄱阳湖之战
The naval battle of 1363 that decided the contest for southern China before the founding of the Ming.
History
1084
Su Shi visits Stone Bell Mountain
His essay on the mountain becomes a model of empirical inquiry in classical prose.
1363
Battle of Lake Poyang
Zhu Yuanzhang's victory over Chen Youliang opens his path to founding the Ming dynasty.
1988
National nature reserve
The Poyang Lake reserve is raised to national status.
1992
Ramsar listing
Among the first wetlands in China designated under the Ramsar Convention.
2021
Ten-year fishing ban
Commercial fishing is suspended on the Yangtze and its connected lakes, including Poyang.
Through the seasons
Spring
Water rises as the rains begin; the birds leave in March and the meadows flood.
Summer
The lake at its fullest, a sea of water with islands; the flood season can bring serious flooding around its shores.
Autumn
Water falls from September; the first cranes and geese arrive in October.
Winter
The birdwatching season, from November to February, when the lake bed is exposed and the pools fill with cranes.
Routes and ways in
Wucheng and the reserve
From Wucheng town, walks and boat trips reach the seasonal pools and observation towers of the national nature reserve.
Eastern shore wetlands
Wetland parks on the eastern and southern shores near Poyang county and Nanchang have observation hides for cranes.
Hukou and Stone Bell Mountain
The meeting point of the lake and the Yangtze, near Jiujiang.
Practical notes
- Birdwatching depends on water levels, which vary greatly from year to year; local reserve staff know where the birds are.
- Winters are damp and cold with wind across the flats; warm, windproof clothing is essential.
- Core zones of the reserve are closed; observe birds from towers and hides without approaching flocks.
Cities to start from
- Nanchang南昌Capital · Historic city · Industrial centreCity of the Pavilion of Prince Teng and the 1927 uprising
- Jiujiang九江Port · Scenic area · Historic cityYangtze port at the foot of Lushan and the mouth of Poyang Lake
- Shangrao上饶Scenic area · Historic citySanqingshan, Wuyuan villages and the northern Wuyi
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Poyang Lake — Encyclopaedia Britannica (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Ramsar Sites Information Service — Ramsar Convention Secretariat (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Jiangxi Provincial People's Government — Jiangxi Provincial People's Government (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- International Crane Foundation: Siberian crane — International Crane Foundation (retrieved 27 September 2026)
More mountains and nature in Jiangxi
- MountainJinggang Mountains井冈山Forested border mountains where the first rural Red Army base was built
- Sacred mountainMount Longhu龙虎山Dragon and Tiger Mountain, home of the Celestial Masters
- Mountain · 1,474 mMount Lu庐山Waterfalls, academies and villas above the Yangtze and Poyang Lake
- MountainMount Sanqing三清山Granite pillars of the Three Pure Ones, walked on cliff-side paths
- National park · 2,158 mMount Wuyi武夷山Red cliffs of rock tea and a forest wilderness on the Fujian–Jiangxi divide
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