I. Geographical Situation

　　II. The Largest Fresh Lake in China.
　　Poyang Lake is 173 km long from north to south. The furthest width is 74km, mean width 16.9m from west to east. The lakeshore is 1200km long, and the area of the water body 3,283 km2 (when the water level at Hukou is 21.71m), mean depth 8.4m, and the inmost depth about 25.1m. Its volume is 27.6 billion m3. It is the largest fresh lake in China. It holds water from the five rivers -- Gan River, Fu River, Xing River, Rao River and Xiu River, and emptied into Changjian River, the No.1 river in China, at Hukou after storing up. Its annual afflux of water to Changjian River exceeds the total water amount of the three rivers -- Huanghe River, Huaihe River and Haihe River. It is a seasonal lake with the feature of taking in and sending out water. The area of the watershed is 162.2 thousand km2, taking up 97% of Jiangxi provincial territory, 9% of the Basin of Changjiang River. The annual mean runoff of the watershed is 152.5 billion M3, accounting for 16.3% of that of the watershed of Changjiang River.

　　III. Landscape -- "A Line at Low Water, An Ocean at Flood"
　　The mean water level of Poyang Lake in many years is 12.86m, the highest 22.59m on July 31,1998, the lowest 5.9m on Feb.6, 1963 (at Hukou Hydrological Station, Wusong Base Level). The amplitude of variation of water level is from 9.79m to 15.36 in a year. The absolute fluctuation of water level is up to 16.69m. With variation of water amount, the fluctuating range of water level is relatively large. It can naturally store floodwater. The area of the Lake greatly varies with the fluctuation of its water level. The water level rises at flood season and then the water surface suddenly expands. And it drops at low water and bottomland comes out, and only several wandering watercourses remain. The landscape looks like a line at low water and an ocean at flood.

　　IV. Evolutional History
　　Poyang Lake was called Pengli Pond, Guantinghu Lake and many other names in ancient period. Over very long time, Penglize Bog expanded to the south and water went over Songmenshan Mountain and reached over the vicinity of Poyang County, under the interaction of geological, meteorological and hydrological factors. So its name is changed to Poyang Lake. Before the invasion of water to the south, the south to Songmenshan Mountain is originally a well-populated Xiaoyang Plain. With gradual expansion of water to the south, Xiaoyang County and Haihun County in the Basin of Poyang Lake is submerged into water successively. There is a saying that "Xiaoyang submerged and Duchang appeared, and Haihun submerged and Wucheng appeared". Over long-term evolution, the modern miniature of the mist-covered and vast Poyang Lake formed about 1600 years ago. It is like a big precious gourd tied with the girdle - Changjiang River of thousands of miles long.

　　V. The Important International Wetland
　　Poyang Lake is an important international wetland, and an important storing lake of the main stream of Changjiang River. It possesses very important ecological functions, e.g. floodwater storage and biological diversity protection, in the watershed of Changjiang River. It is one of the 10 ecological conservation areas in China, and also one of the global important ecological areas regulated by WWF. It plays very important roles in maintaining the ecological safety of the region and the Nation.

　　VI. "The World of White Cranes" and "The Kingdom of Rare Birds"
　　Poyang Lake has the annual mean precipitation of 1,636mm, because of the contribution of warm and humid monsoon. Since it possesses humid monsoon climate, Poyang Lake becomes accordingly "the country of rivers and green grass, and blooming plums in the misty rain", and "a land flowing with milk and honey". Its environment and climatic conditions are suitable for migratory birds to live through the winter. At late autumn and early winter in every year, thousands and thousands of birds migrate over here from Siberia of Russia, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, and northeastern and northwestern China. At spring (April) of next year, they gradually migrate away. So far, there are more than 300 kinds and a million plumes of birds, among which 50 kinds are rare birds, in the conservation area. It becomes one of the biggest bird conservation areas in the world. Especially, it is here where the biggest group of white cranes was found in the world. The total number of wintering populations was above 4,000 in 2002, accounting for more than 95% of total of white crane in the world. This is why Poyang Lake comes to be known as "the world of white cranes" and "the kingdom of rare birds

　　VII. Cultural History
　　Poyang Lake Watershed has been one of the rich, economically forward areas in China since ancient time. Many historically distinguished characters of our Nation, such as Xu Zhi, Tao Yuanmin, Lin Shihong, Liu Shu, Hong Shi, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Da, have lived in the lake area. Many powerful heroes' stories have taken place here. For example, Zhou Yu trained his marine; marine war in Poyang Lake brought about between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang; Taiping Army won great victory at Hukou; and Li Liejun launched "Secondary Revolution" at Hukou. Poyang Lake was the only waterway to Jiangxi from the north in ancient time. Anecdotes and legends arising from Poyang Lake are countless. The well-known lines - "fisher boat singing in the sunset glow and echoing at the Pengli Shore", of "Protasis of Tengwang Pavilion" wrote by Wang Bo, a poet in Tang Dynast, has depicted the fishers' cheerful scene of harvesting of fish back from Poyang Lake. Su Shi, a great poet in Song Dynast, wrote that "Green Mountains around, water without bound, in the middle was painted small or big island" in the poem of "Li Sishun's Drawing of Splendid Island of Changjiang River", which has given us a picture of the beautiful scenery of Poyang Lake.
　　Splendid mountains and wonderful islands can be found everywhere around Poyang Lake. Mt. Shizhongshan and Mt. Dagushan in Hukou County, Mt. Nanshan and Laoyemiao Shrine in Douchang County and Mt. Luoxingdun in Xingzi County are intriguing tourist attractions. All scenic spots are connected to form a tourist route through cruisers, under the efforts of Jiujiang Tourism.