The Yellow River started flowing into Wenying Lake from Qiangkuangbao Reservoir at 8:30 am on June 27. The diverted water will help to raise the water level of Wenying Lake and its underground water and bring more tourists to the Wenying Lake scenic area.

Datong has launched its urban water supply and allocation system focusing on the anti-seepage of Yuhe River, Cetian Reservoir, Zhaojiayao Reservoir, Gushan Reservoir and Wenying Lake since 2009. With the help of seepage-proof construction work, the surface area of Wenying Lake is now 4,330,000 square meters and the reservoir capacity has reached 10,360,000 cubic meters.

On July 27, 2011, Gushan Reservoir started releasing water into Wenying Lake, but the lake has evaporated a great deal owing to its large surface area. According to statistics from the local weather station, the evaporation from Wenying Lake amounted to 4,240,000 cubic meters from August, 2011 to May, 2012. Until now, the effective capacity of Wenying Lake has reached three million cu m.

The chairman of the Datong Yellow River Water Supply Co. said the project was completed in a month with 100,000 cu m of diverted water per day. The route of the Yellow River, is 40 kilometers long, flowing into Wenying Lake past 4 towns, 22 villages, 3 rail lines and 2 expressways. The project began on April 18 and finished on June 26 with 170 million yuan ($26,724,000) of investment.