Sun moon lake
| Sun moon lake | |||||
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| Coordinates | 23 ° 52 ′ 0 ″ N , 120 ° 55 ′ 0 ″ E | ||||
| Data on the structure | |||||
| Construction time: | 1919-1934 | ||||
| Height of the barrier structure : | 30.3 m | ||||
| Crown length: | 363 m | ||||
| Power plant output: | at least 2700 MW | ||||
| Data on the reservoir | |||||
| Altitude (at congestion destination ) | 760 m | ||||
| Water surface | 11.6 km² | ||||
| Storage space | 142 million m³ | ||||
The Sun-Moon Lake ( Chinese 日月潭 , Pinyin Rìyuètán , W.-G. Jih-yüeh T'an , Pe̍h-ōe-jī Ji̍t-goa̍t-thâm ) is the largest inland body of water in Taiwan with 7.5 - 8 square kilometers . It is located 760 meters above sea level on the western slope of the Central Mountains in the rural municipality of Yuchi in the district of Nantou . Its deepest point is 27 meters. The name of the lake appears for the first time in Chinese documents in 1821. In 1934, after the completion of a power station, its surface increased from 4.55 km² to its present size. It got its double name from the bank shapes, which resemble the sun in the east and a crescent moon in the west , but according to other sources also after the different water colors of the two sides of the water. In older English literature, the sun-moon lake is also called Candidius lake ( Lake Candidius ), which it received after the Dutch missionary Georgius Candidius , who proselytized from 1627 to 1637 in Formosa , the Netherlands . Dragon Lake ( Dragon Lake ) is another name for the lake, under which he also in Google Earth can be found.
tourism
The Sun Moon Lake is a popular travel destination for many Taiwanese because the climate is very pleasant and tolerable and the landscape is romantic. It is traditionally popular and well known, especially among honeymooners. The idyllically located Wenwu Temple, completed in 1938, is located near its northern bank. One part of the temple is dedicated to Guan Gong (a god of war), the second part to Confucius . It was partially destroyed in the severe earthquake in 1999, but was then completely renovated.
The Syuentzang (Xuanzang) temple, dedicated to the Buddhist monk Xuanzang and built in 1996 with a view of the island of Guanghua, towers over the southern shore of the lake . Another tourist attraction is the Ci-En Pagoda ( 慈恩塔 , Cí'ēn tǎ ), which stands above the southern tip of the lake at an altitude of 954 m. It is 46 m high (so that its top reaches exactly 1000 meters above sea level) and offers a very beautiful view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. The pagoda was built on the orders of Chiang Kai-shek in memory of his mother and was completed in February 1971. In the last years of his life, Chiang was a frequent visitor here.
With a few exceptions, bathing in the lake is prohibited. For tourists, a boat trip of about an hour is offered to visit the artificial small island of Guanghua and a shrine. Since 1983 there has been a swimming competition over a distance of 3 kilometers through the lake every year around the time of the moon festival , in which not only athletes but also numerous amateurs take part. The number of participants is more than 10,000.
Water balance
Originally, the Sun-Moon Lake was neither used for recreation nor as an excursion destination, but rather as a hydroelectric power station , which covered all of Taiwan's electricity needs until 1960. It is at the center of a complex system of dams and artificial water pipes for energy generation.
In addition to its natural sources, the lake receives water from the Choshui River through a tunnel taken from the Wuchieh Dam. The Shiushi Dam, an earthfill dam with a concrete core, completed in 1934, closes the lake. Various pipelines and tunnels supply the Takuan 1, Chukung, Mingtan and Takuan 2 (formerly Minghu) hydropower plants . These all drain into the Shuili River, which is dammed up by two other dams, and which in turn flows into the Choshui at a lower point.
The Takuan 2 and Mingtan power plants, built between 1981 and 1989, are pumped storage power plants that were built underground as cavern power plants . Together they have a capacity of 2600 MW.
During the 1999 earthquake , the dam was slightly damaged. However, the cracks could be quickly sealed with concrete injections. The power plants failed temporarily, the feed tunnel for Takuan 1 partially collapsed. In the past few years, all tunnel systems from the 1930s have therefore been successively renewed.
Climate data
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Climate data from the years 1981–2010
Source: Taiwan Central Weather Bureau
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swell
- New Zealand Society on Large Dams: Reconnaissance Report Taiwan Dams - March 2000 (PDF in English; 44 kB)
- Dr. Evert Hoek: Course Notes on Practical Rock Engineering, 2007. Chapter 13: Design of large underground caverns - a case history based on the Mingtan Pumped Storage Project in Taiwan (PDF in English; 3.27 MB)
- C.-S. Yehl, L.-J. Lin (Central Region Water Resources Office): The Strategies of Water Resources Development on the Chou-Shui River Basin in Taiwan, 2000 (PDF in English; 457 kB)
Web links
- Sun Moon Lake National Scenery Bureau (in English)
- In the heart of Taiwan, where the sun meets the moon. Tourist report on Spiegel Online
- The sun-moon-lake private travelogue
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ci En Pagoda. sunmoonlake.gov.tw, accessed on January 23, 2019 .
- ^ Sun Moon Lake Swimming Carnival. sunmoonlake.gov.tw, accessed on January 23, 2019 .