Largest lakes & reservoirs in China by water volume
The estimated volume of water that a lake contains is measured at the lake’s normal elevation. By this measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is Siberia’s Lake Baikal.Water Volume can be measured in acre-feet, in cubic miles, or in cubic kilometers. One acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre (43,560 square feet) to a depth of one foot. One cubic mile equals 3,379,200 acre-feet. One cubic kilometer equals 810,713 acre-feet. 1 acre-foot is equal to 325,851 US gallons. Siberia’s Lake Baikal contains about 6,276,367,740,000,000 gallons of freshwater – nearly 1 million gallons for every living person on earth.
The other – and more widely used – measure of a lake’s size is the lake’s surface acreage. By that measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is North America’s Lake Superior.
Note: In the United States, an acre foot is a unit of volume used to refer to large-scale bodies of water. It is defined by the volume of water needed to cover 1 acre of surface area to a depth of 1 foot.
You can find many of the the world’s largest lakes (by water volume) on LakeLubbers. Note: For some lakes, the water volume data is unknown or does not apply, so you may see fewer lakes than the total 8 articles we have published for China lakes.
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Below are lakes within China > Compared by water volume. This list does not represent all lakes in China, only the 8 China lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Water vol. in ac-ft |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Kanas Lake (China, Northwest China Region) |
43,616,369 ac-ft | (Also known as Hanas Lake, Kanasi Lake) One of the most interesting and beautiful tourist destinations in China’s far northwest region is Kanas Lake. Located in the Altay Mountains, the glac… |
| Poyang Lake (China, East China Region) |
2,391,608 ac-ft | (Also known as Boyang, Po Yang Hu, Poyanghu) Poyang Lake is China’s largest freshwater lake-also known as one of China’s five Great Lakes. This massive shallow lake is located in Jiangxi Province… |
| Erhai Lake (China, Southwest China Region) |
2,026,783 ac-ft | (Also known as Er Lake, Yeyuze, Kunming Lake (historic)) Known as the Pearl of the Plateau, Yunnan’s Erhai Lake has been enchanting both native and foreign visitors for thousands of years. Nestled like a shi… |
| West Lake (China, East China Region) |
11,585 ac-ft | (Also known as Qiantang Lake,Outer West Lake, West Inner Lake, North Inner Lake, Little South Lake, Yue Lake) One of the most beautiful engineered environments in China is West Lake. Originally a spring-fed bay on the Qiantang River, the lake was formed about… |