Caohai Lake Scenic Area
Located in the outskirts of Weining County of Guizhou Province, Caohai Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in Guizhou Plateau. Usually, the lake occupies an area of about 30 square kilometers (about 7413 acres) with an elevation of about 2,200 meters (about 7217 feet). The whole lake is surrounded by green mountains, therefore it forms a unique natural environment - warm in winter and cool in summer.
In the lake, there are plenty of aquatic animals and plants, waterfowls and fish. All of these add more color to the lake. For example, every year from March to April, Caohai Lake is decorated by numerous flourishing flowers which live under water; while large areas of azalea will cover the fields around the lake in autumn. For this reason, autumn is considered to be the best season to enjoy the beautiful scenery of this lake. In addition, visitors can take boats to enjoy the lake in closer proximity. There are also some aquatic animals living here such as bitterns, wild geese, wild ducks and long-tailed pheasants.
With its rich aquatic plants and mild climate, Caohai Lake is one of the best habitats for birds. In early spring and late autumn every year, more than 100,000 birds will migrate here. These include the black-necked crane, the red-crowned crane, the white stork and the white-tailed sea-eagle and so on. So this lake is also called "the Kingdom of Birds". The black-necked crane is the only plateau crane left in the world, and the best time to admire the black-necked crane is in winter.
