The water in Dongting Lake finally flows into the lower Jingjiang reach of the Yangtze River at the Chenglingji Station and discharges downstream.

The Dongting Lake catchment begins to enter the rainy season in April and the rainfall reaches its maximum in June.

Then, the rainy area moves to the upper part of the Yangtze River Basin in July and flood water flowing into the lake from upstream increases significantly.

[4][5] The earliest rice paddies yet discovered in the world were in the Liyang plain, which was then on the western edge of Dongting lake.

The Han state was actively involved in the colonization of the region, maintaining dikes in Liyang to protect farmland from flooding.

"Dongting" literally means "Grotto Court", and the lake was named for the huge hall or cavern, which was believed to exist beneath the lake, where the spirits of the Sage-King Shun's wives Ehuang and Nüying were said to be the rulers of this grotto, which was claimed to have underground passages opening to all parts of the empire.

[13] The basin of Dongting Lake and its surrounding area is famous for its scenic beauty, which has been encapsulated in the phrase "Hunan of the Xiao and Xiang rivers" (潇湘湖南; Xiāo-Xiāng Húnán).

The agricultural colonization of the region began in ancient times, and by the 19th century much of the lake's shallower areas had been destroyed to create farmland.

[1] In 2007 fears were expressed that China's finless porpoise, a native of the lake, might follow the baiji, the Yangtze river dolphin, into extinction.

Pressure on the finless porpoise population on Poyang Lake comes from the high numbers of ships passing through, as well as sand dredging.

[16] After flooding of the Yangtze River in late June 2007, approximately 2 billion mice were displaced from the islands of the lake when water was released from the Three Gorges Dam to control the excess.

The mice invaded surrounding communities, damaging crops and dikes and forcing the government to construct walls and ditches to control the population.

[17] Villagers killed an estimated 2 million mice by beating them to death or using poisons, which also had an adverse effect on their predators.