origin point of the North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal. Under the Yuan, the course of the Grand Canal in the area was straightened to circumvent the lake. By the Qing, the Yellow River had built up enough silt that it changed course again to merge with earlier tributaries of the Huai. In 1680, the increased silting of these higher stretches enlarged Hongze Lake so much that it entirely consumed the regional center Sizhou and the Ming Zuling tombs that had been built nearby to honor the ancestors of the Hongwu Emperor. In the early 1850s, the massive floods of the Yellow River that occasioned the Taiping Rebellion restored it entirely to its northern course, removing its inflow and siltation from Hongze Lake. Under the People's Republic of China, counties in Anhui that bordered the lake were ceded to Jiangsu in 1955 to allow unified administration of the lake. By the early 1960s, its water level had dropped enough that the stone statues of the Ming Zuling's sacred way were again visible along the shoreline. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, the provincial and national cultural preservation authorities excavated and restored the tombs, ultimately erecting a new embankment to protect it from any further flooding. References Citations Bibliography . . . External links Lake Hongze English guide (Jiangsu.NET) Lakes of Jiangsu Huai'an