Reservoir · China
Qiandao Lake
Freshwater lake in Zhejiang, China
- Area
- 425km²
- Average depth
- 51m
- Elevation
- 100m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 1,496km
- Volume
- 21.6km³
Qiandao Lake is a reservoir in China. It covers 425 km². On average it is 51 m deep. Its surface lies 100 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Qiandao Lake?
The water is warmest in July, around 29 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 11 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from May to October: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 30 °C on average in July and 8 °C in January. The driest month is October (64 mm of rain), the wettest June (326 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (128 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 11 | 13 | 8 | -1 | 82 | 12 | 2.2 | 10 |
| February | 11 | 11 | 11 | 1 | 113 | 12 | 2.0 | 11 |
| March | 13 | 15 | 16 | 6 | 155 | 16 | 2.8 | 12 |
| April | 17 | 20 | 21 | 11 | 179 | 15 | 3.4 | 11 |
| May | 22 | 25 | 25 | 16 | 207 | 16 | 3.7 | 10 |
| June | 27 | 29 | 28 | 20 | 326 | 20 | 2.7 | 10 |
| July | 29 | 30 | 30 | 24 | 184 | 16 | 5.8 | 10 |
| August | 29 | 30 | 30 | 23 | 148 | 17 | 5.4 | 10 |
| September | 27 | 28 | 27 | 19 | 104 | 12 | 4.3 | 11 |
| October | 24 | 25 | 22 | 13 | 64 | 8 | 4.4 | 11 |
| November | 19 | 21 | 16 | 7 | 87 | 9 | 3.4 | 10 |
| December | 15 | 17 | 10 | 0 | 65 | 8 | 3.2 | 10 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 22 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 10,424 km² of land.
- About 372 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 20.5 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Qiandao Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 2campsites
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 1marinas and slipways
- 6ferry piers
Southeast of Qiandao Lake Tourism Wharf and 5 more
- 3viewpoints
- 18hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Sheraton, Hong Ye Hotel, Super 8 Hotel Hangzhou Qiandao Lake New East Road (No Foreigners), Warm Island Art Hotel, Bright and 13 more
- —fishing spots
- 13restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Quzhou Airport (JUZ), 66 km in a straight line.
OpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | 8.2 | 11.1 | 15.6 | 21.2 | 25.3 | 27.5 | 30.3 | 30.1 | 26.9 | 22.0 | 16.5 | 10.0 |
| 2020 | +1.6 | +2.5 | +0.7 | −1.0 | +1.1 | +0.8 | −0.9 | +0.8 | −1.6 | −1.0 | +0.7 | −0.5 |
| 2021 | +1.2 | +4.1 | +1.2 | −0.5 | +0.6 | +0.8 | −0.8 | +0.3 | +2.6 | +0.6 | +0.1 | +2.0 |
| 2022 | +0.7 | −3.6 | +3.2 | +0.4 | −1.7 | +0.2 | +0.9 | +2.0 | +0.2 | −0.7 | +2.7 | −1.8 |
| 2023 | +2.4 | +1.0 | +1.8 | +0.9 | +0.6 | +1.1 | ±0.0 | +0.2 | +1.6 | +0.8 | +1.1 | +0.8 |
| 2024 | +2.3 | −1.4 | +1.9 | +1.2 | −0.5 | −0.6 | +1.0 | +2.1 | +2.5 | +0.2 | +1.0 | +0.2 |
| 2025 | +2.9 | −0.8 | +1.1 | +2.4 | +0.7 | +1.3 | +0.6 | +1.6 | +3.3 | +2.9 | +0.5 | +3.4 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
About these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q2470528) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
