T'AI, LAKE

Wade-Giles romanization T'ai Hu, Pinyin Tai Hu, large lake between Chekiang and Kiangsu provinces, China. Roughly crescent-shaped, it is 45 miles (70 km) from north to south and about 37 miles (59 km) from east to west; its total surface area is about 850 square miles (2,200 square km). The lake lies in an extremely flat plain and is connected with a maze of waterways that feed it from the west and discharge its waters eastward into the East China Sea, via the Su-chou, L, and Huang-p'u rivers. In addition to these natural waterways, there is an intricate pattern of canals and irrigation channels associated with the lake. Only on the northeast side is the lake bounded by a ridge of hills, which also outcrop in the lake as islands, many of which, because of continuing silting, have been joined to the shoreline. Although the surrounding area has been settled since the 1st century BC, the irrigation system mostly dates from the 7th century AD and later. Reclamation and drainage works were carried on intensively between the 10th and the 13th centuries; large-scale flood control works were undertaken in the 11th and again in the 15th centuries. In more recent times, similar works have been undertaken; drainage canals and dikes have been built, and an ever-more complex irrigation pattern has grown up. In the 1930s the Chinese Nationalist government established a water-conservancy authority for the lake that, soon after 1949, was replaced by the Chinese Communist government with a water-conservancy assembly, which is generally responsible for the whole area. Several of the islands in the eastern part of the lake were traditionally famous Taoist and Buddhist religious sites. Several thousand people live on the islands, raising fruit and fishing in the lake. Lake T'ai is a place of great natural beauty; and the area, particularly in the east near Su-chou in Kiangsu and in the north around Wu-hsi, attracts many tourists.