Lake garden has stunning scenery
Print Edition
One of the most famous lake gardens in China, the Slender West Lake National Park, is located in the northern suburb of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. The 168-hectare area consists of two separate sections, Slender West Lake Scenic Area and All-Flower Garden. It is also home to dozens of scenic spots and numerous Chinese bonsais.
During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) there were 24 scenic spots along the 4.3-kilometer Slender West Lake. Many have been refurbished or rebuilt and more have been added, including Grand Rainbow Bridge, Small Golden Hill, Five-Pavilion Bridge, Wangchun Pavilion, Yangzhou Bonsai Museum, and others.
Visitors are advised to set aside one or two days to walk around the area or take a small boat to explore it.
Grand Rainbow Bridge stands at the entrance. Its beautiful scenery once attracted many liberators and poets to discuss national affairs and exchange their written works. Crossing this bridge, tourists will come to Long Dyke which is most fascinating in spring and is best depicted in literature: “Follow the flowers and willows along the bank, walk all the way from pavilions to the mountain.”
Walking through willows and peach trees, visitors will find Xu Yuan’s Garden at the end of Long Dyke. Xu was a warlord in the 1911 revolutionary period. Off to the east is the scenic spot named Four Bridges in Mist Rain. The bridges referred to are Spring Wave Bridge, Great Rainbow Bridge, Long Spring Bridge, and Lotus Bridge, all of different colors and styles. The name is linked to the image created when it rains.
Passing Xu Yuan’s Garden, tourists will come to the Small Golden Hill, the biggest island and home to most buildings in the Scenic Area. They have various purposes and bear names such as Wind Kiosk, which Chinese literary gaint Zhu Ziqing believed was the “best place in Slender West Lake to watch water, and also the proper place to enjoy the moon,” Blow Stage, and Osmanthus Fragrance Study House.
Also in the center of the lake is Fishing Islands which hosts a typically traditional Chinese gazebo structure which in ancient times was where traditional stringed and woodwind music instruments were played.
Close to Fishing Islands is Five-Pavilion Bridge, a unique structure that is as much a symbol of Yangzhou as of Slender West Lakeas well.
A final spot one should not miss is 24 Bridge, a jade belt-shaped arch bridge 24 meters long, 2.4 meters wide and with 24 flights of steps on each side.
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