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This temple is usually surrounded by water all around.
Not so this year: The Poyang, China's largest freshwater lake, which is located in the Jiangxi province in the east of the country, has dried up like never before.
The record heatwave has been going on for over 70 days and it has already shrunk to 1/5th its size.
This also affects the water supply of the surrounding cities.
Zhang Daxian, resident
»Last year the lake had water.
I don't know what happened this year, he's so dry.
It's been dry for a month and a half this year... almost two months.
In the past the water receded in mid-September, but this year it is strange, it has already dried up in mid-July.
I haven't seen anything like this in a long, long time, at least not in the last ten, twenty years."
It is normal for the lake to have low water in autumn and winter.
In return, it absorbs water again in the humid summer months.
But this year the water level dropped so much extremely early.
Zhang Daxian, Resident
»In the past, the water level was usually there.
The highest level is here.
He was here last year.”
Poyang Lake is of great importance to the area because of its role in regulating the Yangtze River.
It is therefore also called "Kidney Lake".
The farmers in the region, who depend on the water from the river, now fear for their harvest.
Although rain is forecast for the next ten days, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture describes the drought as a "serious threat" to the country.
Special teams are therefore being deployed all over the People's Republic to open up new water sources or even to artificially generate precipitation by spraying clouds with chemicals from rockets or airplanes so that they rain down more quickly.
However, the latter is only possible under very specific conditions and, in view of the extreme drought, should only lead to manageable results.