Dongping Lake lies in Dongping County of Tai'an City, and has a total area reaching 732 square kilometers. It is the second large fresh-water lake in Shandong Province, and also the only existing water area of the Eight Hundreds Li Liangshan Lake described in the famous ancient book Shuihuzhuan (All Men Are Brothers). Dongping Lake is situated beside the mountain, and is a vast expense of misty water with fishing boats on it. The scene here is beautiful and elegant, and people often call it "Little Dongting Lake". It was approved by Shandong Provincial People's Government as the provincial scenery zone in 1985.
There are many historic and cultural relics scattered along the bank of Dongping Lake. For examples, Baifo Mountain, situated at the northeast of the county, has four caves for Buddha. The big cave has been carved with a five-meter sitting statue of Sakyamuni; Sili Mountain, located on the west side of Dongping Lake, has 470 statues around the cliff of its main peak, the largest one being 12 meters high which is counted as the largest statue in Shandong Province. The precipice inscribe. Manjuist Projna Sutra on the cliff of Erhong Peak in Jiu County was written by the famous monk An Daoyi of Northern Qi Dynasty, and the total area is about one thousand square meters with the largest Chinese character of the inscription "Fo" being about 4.6 meters high. In the middle of Dongping Lake, there is Tushan Island on which locate Cangmei Pavilion and Huiyuan Pavilion; Lashan Mountain national forest park is located on the west side of the lake, and on the mountain, there are famous scenic spots such as Taishan Mountain Temporary Palace for the Emperor Jade Emperor Palace, Yaowang Temple (Temple for the king of medicine), Sanqing Palace and Laohu Cave (tiger cave) etc. Shimiao village on the west side of the lake, also called Shijie village in ancient times, has been said to be the hometown of Ruan Xian'er and Ruon Xiaoqi described in Shuihuzhuan according to the research.