Jingbo Lake, as it is known nowadays lies between Mountain Zhangguangcai and Mountain Laoye, southeast of Heilongjiang Province, 110 kilometers away from Mudanjiang City, a new industrial city in northeast China.

Jingbo Lake was also named Meituo Lake in ancient times. It was called Meituo River during the Han Dynasty. In the 2nd year of the Yonghui period of the Tang Dynasty when Emperor Gaozong was reigning (651 A.D.), it was once called A-Pu Lake, or A-Pu-Lung Lake; afterwards it changed into Huerjin Sea. In the lst year of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (713 A.D.), it was called Huhan Sea. It was not named Jingbo Lake until the Ming Dynasty. But during the Qing Dynasty people called it Bierteng Lake.

According to the geographer, the lake was formed by volcanic eruption which blocked up a river course about 10,000 years ago. The average depth of the lake is 40 meters, getting deeper and deeper from north to south. The deepest place is 62 meters. The length of the lake is 50 kilometers. The widest place is 9 kilometers. During the day season, the narrowest place is at least 300 meters. The lake is divided into 4 parts: the north lake, the middle lake, the south and the upper lake. It has a total area of 90.3 square kilometers. There are many harbours along the coast of the lake and lots of islands in the lake. From southwest to northeast, the lake is in “s” shape, like a silver satin tied with several bright pearls, inlaid in the land of emerald green.

The beautiful lake is surrounded with mountains and forests. The smooth surface of the lake shines like a mirror on fine days. No visitors like to miss the best scenic spots of the lake region such as Diao Shui Lou Waterfalls, Pearl Gate, River Bank, Lotus, Old Black Mountain and Orioles Sing Hill. With the development of tourism, there are many ingenuously and uniquely constructed hotels and villas around the lake. The well-known Jing Bo Lake Hotel with its first-class villas for state officials and superb gardens is known as No. 1 Garden of Jing Bo lake. Besides, the primitive forests which retain the view of original style nowadays in the scenic spots of the lake, the mysterious tunnel formed by volcanic eruption and Bo Hai Old Country, the ruins of an ancient city, always attract visi-tors.

The scenic spots of Jingbo Lake is not only beautiful in scenery but also rich in natural resources. Because of the mild and humid climate, the yearly average temperature is 4.5℃, which is favourable for the growth of plant, thus the district is very rich in timber. The plant growing period is about 150 days. The snowy winter, thick black earth and high content of humus make the trees grow fast. The entire forest area is 600,000 hectares, enough for use over 100 years. The lake is also a big natural reservoir, rich in water resources. Its irrigated area is as large as 120,000 square kilometers, with a capacity of over 1.6 billion cubic meters. There are two hydraulic power stations using high-pressure water tunnels, which have earned the name of “Pearl Hidden Underground”. The broad water area produces large variety of aquatic products, among which are lake silver carp which is well-known both at home and abroad, carp, red tail fish, Bai Hua fish (a kind of fresh water fish) and white fish. During the winter fishing sea-son, the catch of every net is over 5,000 kilograms. It is also abundant in nuts growing on the mountain areas such as grapes, mountain plums, mountain peaches, pine nuts and mountain dates. The yearly output is as 250,000 tons. There is also a great variety mushrooms, such as Yuan mush-room, winter mushroom, black mushroom, hazel mushroom and valuable monkey head mushroom and edible fungus which are in great demand both in the domestic and foreign markets. Medical and medicinal plants and herbs are innumerable. Besides mountain ginseng, there are the root of straight lady-bell (Adenophora Stricta), palm ginseng, the root of Chinese wild ginseng (Asarum Sieboldii), the tuber of elevated gastrodia (Gastrodia Elate ). The whole lake region is really like anatural zoo with more than 200 species of wild animals and birds, one third of which are beasts and the rest are reptiles. Many rare birds and animals can be seen in the forest, many farms such as deer farms, marten farms, bee yards and ginseng culture farms have been opened up around the lake region. Some precious specialities, like pilose antler, foetus of deer and skin of mar-ten also abound in this area.

According to geologic history, the lake is regarded as a part of Yan Ji Subsidence. A Sketch of Geotectology of China records that a great crack occurred in the Jingbo Lake region from the northeast to the southwest during the late Paleozoic era. Affected by orogenic movement of the Himalayas, and long period of erosion by wind and rain, the crack happened and the ground deformed up and down, the upper part formed into mountains, the lower part formed into subsided basin, that was about 25 million years ago, in the third period of the Cenozoic Era. Up to the fouth of the Cenozoic Era, a million years ago, the go-up of the subsided basin partly happened again, the basaltic magma overflowed form the ancient cracks, making the subsided basin smaller, thus formed the lake basin. The lake was once slightly bigger than it is now. It is about one million years old, just as old as mankind.

Geographers say that more than a million years ago, there used to be a group of volcanos northwest of the ancient lake basin, which is now known as Jingbo volcano group. When the volcanos erupted, a large amount of magma was sent out and flowed to the southeast along the ancient river course of Shitoudianzi River and blocked up the river course of Mudanjiang River, so a barrier dyke was formed near the Diaoshuilou Waterfalls, and Jingbo Lake came into being. Because the lake (old lake basin ) was formed by subsidence it is also called Subsided-Barrier Lake.