The Liujiaxia Reservoir () is a reservoir in China's

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

Province, formed by the

Liujiaxia Dam The Liujiaxia Dam () is a major hydroelectric dam on the upper Yellow River, in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture of China's Gansu Province. The dam and its hydroelectric facility (Liujiaxia Hydroelectric Station, ) are located in Liujia Gorge, or ...

on the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...

. It occupies over ,"临夏旅游" (Linxia Tourism), published by Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture Tourist Board, 2003. 146 pages. No ISBN. Pages 26=27. and is located entirely within

Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture (, Xiao'erjing: ), formerly known as Hezhou (河州) and Baohan (枹罕), is located in Gansu Province, south of the provincial capital Lanzhou, bordering Qinghai to the west. It is an autonomous prefecture for the ...

. The reservoir's shores belong to the prefecture's

Yongjing County Yongjing (, Xiao'erjing: ) is a county in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in China's Gansu Province. The county seat, the town (''zhen'') of Liujiaxia (), is located about 80 km south-west from the provincial capital city, Lanzhou. As is t ...

(the narrow northern part, and the north shore of the wide southern part),

Dongxiang Autonomous County Dongxiang Autonomous County (; Santa: Dunxianzu Zizhixien) is an autonomous county in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, province of Gansu of the People's Republic of China. It was established as a Dongxiang ethnic autonomous area in 1950. Hist ...

(eastern part of the south shore),

Linxia County Linxia County (, Xiao'erjing: ) is a county in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, province of Gansu of the People's Republic of China. Geography Linxia County is located in central and south-western parts of the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefect ...

(western part of the south shore), and

Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County () is an autonomous county in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province of the People's Republic of China. The county is located in the mostly mountainous area to the south of the Y ...

(the small westernmost section of the south shore). The

Daxia River The Daxia River () is a tributary of the Yellow River in southern Gansu Province in China's west. The Daxia River starts in eastern Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, then flows easterly through northern Gannan Tibetan Autonomo ...

and the

Tao River Tao River () is a right tributary of China's Yellow River. It starts in Xiqing Mountains () near the Gansu–Qinghai border, flows eastward across Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and then northward more or less along the border between Di ...

flow into the reservoirs, forming wide bays. The water level in Liujiaxia Reservoir is usually reported as above the sea level, but in practice it varies significantly, in accordance with the water flow and human needs. The initial capacity of the reservoir was , but after 10 years it lost 10% of its capacity due to

silting Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...

, and after 17 years, 17.4%. This silting rate is considered quite low, compared to other reservoirs on the Yellow River, such as the narrow Yanguoxia Reservoir just downstream, which lost 71.3% of its storage capacity between 1958 and 1964 (and 77%, by 1965), or

Sanmenxia Reservoir The Sanmenxia Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the middle-reaches of the Yellow River near Sanmenxia Gorge on the border between Shanxi province and Henan Province, China. The dam is multi-purpose and was constructed for flood and ice control al ...

, which lost 96% of its storage capacity to sedimentation in just 4 years. 6022-Vehicle-ferry-crossing-Liujiaxia-Reservoir

The reservoir usually does not freeze over in winter, but during the unusually cold weather in early 2008 over half of its surface froze, which necessitated taking measures to protect the turbines of the hydroelectric plant from floating ice. A variety of watercraft operate on the reservoir. Vehicle ferries run frequently across the reservoir between docks in Linxia County (Lianhua Tai) and Yongjing County. Recreational vessels and shuttle boats to

Bingling Temple The Bingling Temple () is a series of grottoes filled with Buddhist sculpture carved into natural caves and caverns in a canyon along the Yellow River. It lies just north of where the Yellow River empties into the Liujiaxia Reservoir. Administrati ...

operate from a number of docks, in particular the one in Liujiaxia Town near the dam.Bingling Temple Grottoes
CRIENGLISH.com, 2005-12-05.

References

{{Lakes of China Yellow River Reservoirs in China Bodies of water of Gansu Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture

See also

References