Land reclamation around this body of water halted in the 1950s after it was accidentally broken into a series of smaller lakes. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this body of water referenced in the names of both Húběi to its north and Húnán to its south. Some of the earliest dragon boat races occurred 2,500 years ago on this freshwater lake, the largest in China after Lake Póyáng.
ANSWER: Lake Dòngtíng [or Dòngtíng Hú]
[10e] While Lake Dòngtíng’s surface area can increase sevenfold during flooding season, it now plays a smaller role in regulating the discharge of the Yangtze thanks to the completion of this massive structure upstream in 2006.
ANSWER: Three Gorges Dam [or Sānxiá Dàbà]
[10h] Wildlife like the finless porpoise face extinction in Lakes Dòngtíng and Póyáng due to demand for this resource. Singapore is the world’s largest importer of this resource, much of which is extracted illegally in Malaysia and Cambodia.
ANSWER: sand [accept sand dredging, river sand mining, or sand quarrying] (Singapore imports sand for land reclamation.)
<Henry Atkins, Geography>