As a whole, Weishan Lake is northwest-southeast, with a length of about 1.20km and a width of about 6-25km, with a total area of about1.266km2, which is larger than Chaohu Lake and about half of Taihu Lake. Weishan Lake is a shallow lake, with an average depth of 1.5 meters and a maximum depth of only about 6 meters. So it doesn't have its name among the four major freshwater lakes in China, but it doesn't affect its position as the largest freshwater lake in Shandong Province.
Weishan Lake is a rift lake, and its formation is a long process. On the one hand, it is a low-lying area formed by crustal movement, and on the other hand, it is because our mother river, the Yellow River, is frequently diverted. Before the Yuan Dynasty, Weishan Lake was once a densely populated and prosperous place. The Yellow River frequently changes its course in the lower reaches, disrupting the flow of some rivers in the Huaihe River Basin, such as Surabaya and other rivers. Especially during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Yellow River burst, and the lower reaches of the Yellow River gradually stayed in Weishan Lake because of rising sediment deposition. During Xianfeng period of Qing Dynasty, the area of Weishan Lake reached the peak of 2055 square kilometers, and then gradually decreased due to siltation. Weishan Lake receives water from more than 40 rivers in the surrounding four provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan and Anhui, such as Sihe River, Ji Liang Canal, Baima River and Zhaozhuxin River. There are Han Zhuang sluice, Yijiahe sluice and Linjiaba sluice at the outlet of Weishan Lake in Jiangsu. The famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in China extends southward along the west bank of Weishan Lake in Jining, Shandong.
There are four relatively large islands in Weishan Lake, namely Weishan Island, Nanyang Island, Dushan Island and Huangshan Island, among which Weishan Island is the largest, with a length of 6 kilometers from east to west and a width of 3 kilometers from north to south, with the highest elevation of 9 1.6 meters. According to historical records, Weishan Island was originally a hill on the western edge of Yimeng Mountain. After the formation of Weishan Lake, it became an island in the lake. Weishan Island is very famous. There are two very famous ancient people buried here. One was Cabbage (Shang Zhouwang's mother's younger brother) in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and was later sealed by Zhou Chengwang in Song Dynasty. After his death, he was buried in this mountain, hence the name Weishan and Weishan Lake. Another celebrity buried in Weishan Island is Sean, the strategist of Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty.
When it comes to Weishan Lake, we have to say Jining City and Weishan County. Jining is a prefecture-level city in Shandong Province. It may not be very famous before, but its popularity has greatly improved since Wandering Earth became popular. Jining is adjacent to Linyi City in the east, Heze City in the west, Zaozhuang City and Xuzhou City in Jiangsu Province in the south and Tai 'an City in the north. Jining has a long history and is one of the important birthplaces of Dongyi culture, Huaxia civilization, Confucian culture, Shuihu culture and Canal culture. Many famous people in Jining, such as Confucius, Mencius, Yan Hui and Zuo Qiuming, were born here. Shui Bo's Confucius Temple, Confucius House, Mencius House, Mencius Temple and Liangshan are all in Jining.
Weishan County is a relatively young new county town, which was established in 1953 and covers an area of about 1780 square kilometers. Weishan county looks quite big, but its land area is very small. More than 70% of Weishan County is Weishan Lake, which means Weishan Lake accounts for more than 70% of Weishan County, which is also rare in China. This is because Weishan County is designed to harness Weishan Lake.
Weishan Lake in Qing Dynasty belonged to Yanzhou Prefecture in Shandong Province, Jining Prefecture in Jiangsu Province and Xuzhou Prefecture. 1855, after the Yellow River North Diversion Project, Xuzhou in the Huaihe River Basin gradually got rid of the influence of the Yellow River, but the southwest of Shandong Province was still flooded, and a large number of victims flocked to the west bank of Weishan Lake to reclaim land. Because of the unclear boundary, people in Sulu and Shandong along Weishan Lake often have land disputes, which have not been effectively solved. 1953, in order to better manage Weishan Lake, Weishan County was established and the whole Weishan Lake was brought under its jurisdiction. Although today's Weishan Lake belongs to Shandong Province, the two provinces of Su Ru have cooperated well in Weishan Lake area, and the tourism and aquaculture industry in the lake area have developed better and better, which has benefited the local people a lot.