China is a land of many lakes. Covering an area of over 80,000 square kilometers lakes are found both in the warm, humid plains of the east and the clod, high regions of the west. Over 2,800 lakes exceed one square kilometer, of which more than 130 exceed 100 square kilometers.

Most of China’s lakes are concentrated in the Middle-Lower Changjiang (Yangtze River) Plain and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the rest are scattered in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the Inner Mongolia Plateau, Xinjiang and the northeast.

Lakes fall into two main categories---freshwater and salt lakes, roughly divided by the line from the southern part of the Greater Hinggan range through the Yinshan Mountains and the eastern part of the Qilian Mountains to the Gangdise rage. Southeast of the line are freshwater lakes, usually connected with exterior rivers. With abundant water and drainage outlets; they are useful for developing transport, irrigation and aquaculture. Some are famous health resorts and tourist centers. Northwest of the line are lakes of the interior drainage basins which have no outlets so that their scanty waters have gained in salt content through long years of evaporation until finally they became salt lakes. Salt lakes account for 55 percent of the total area of china’s lakes.