洱海 (Ěrhǎi): Erhai Lake (Yunnan)

Meanings

1 Erhai Lake (Yunnan)
2 second-largest highland lake in China

Characters

洱

Examples

洱海位于云南省大理市。

Ěrhǎi wèiyú Yúnnán shěng Dàlǐ shì.

Erhai Lake is located in Dali, Yunnan Province.

洱海以风、花、雪、月四景闻名。

Ěrhǎi yǐ fēng, huā, xuě, yuè sì jǐng wénmíng.

Erhai Lake is famous for its four iconic sights: wind, flowers, snow and moon.

Tips

culture

Despite its name (海 = sea), Erhai is a freshwater lake — Yunnanese routinely call large lakes 'seas' since the province is landlocked. The 'Wind, Flowers, Snow, Moon' (风花雪月) refer to four scenic icons of the surrounding Dali area: Xiaguan Wind, Shangguan Flowers, Cangshan Snow, Erhai Moon.

memory

洱 looks like 耳 (ear) with three dots of water (氵) — and the lake is shaped like an ear viewed from above. The character is essentially a place-name, almost only used here.