"The biggest lake in Anhui province" Chaohu by Bob_Shan

Chao Hu, named after its shape, is claimed one of the biggest five freshwater lakes in China, and the biggest freshwater lake in Anhui province.

Sailboat

One of Chaohu features is the traditional sailboat.
Sailing on the lake, there are thousand of wood-made sailboats with rectangle sails standing over decks.
Look at the picture at right, I bet the scene is similar to what you would have saw 100 years ago.
Nowadays, most sailboats are equipped with motors while sails are used as assistant power.
Besides sailboats, there are many moto-boats which were made of cement or metal. Moto-boat moves much faster than sailboat but the motor generating a lot of noise and smoke.

Chao Hu

Like many other lakes & rivers in China, especially those less devleoped regions, pollution is a major problem.
When I was there in 1990, the things impressed me most was yellow water and the noise & smoke generated by those sailboats and moto-boats sailing on the lake.
In addition, fishermen who living on those boats treat the lake as a big garbage bin. You will see plastic bags, foam, rotten vegetable, shoes, ... floating on the water.

I wish the situation has been improved since then. God bless Chao Hu!

• Cons:Heavily polluted!