Taihu County is a county in Anhui

Anhui

Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...

 Province, People's Republic of China under the jurisdiction of Anqing City

Anqing

Anqing is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Anhui province, East China. It borders Lu'an to the north, Chaohu to the northeast, Tongling to the east, Chizhou to the southeast, and the provinces of Jiangxi and Hubei to the south and west respectively....

. It has a population of 560,000 and an area of 2031 square kilometres (784.2 sq mi). The seat of government is located in Jingxi Town.

Taihu is noted for its "Huating Lake

Huating Lake

Huating Lake , also known as the Hualiangting Reservoir , is a large scale reservoir in Taihu County, Anqing City, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China, used for the purposes of flood control, hydro-electric power generation, agricultual irrigation, transport and tourism...

" with its mountains and scenic waters. The lake was originally built for flood control and power generation with a dam constructed in the 1960s. Although it was formerly blamed for destroying large areas of farm land, it has evolved into a popular tourism location.

The county has a long history of Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

, an important tributary of Chinese Buddhism.

Administrative divisions

Taihu County has jurisdiction over 10 towns and 5 townships.