Xi-Hui Park

Located in the west suburb of the old town of WuXi the park is rich in historical sites and cultural relics: the “Lord Huang Gully” in there being so named for presumably Prince Huang Xie of the Kingdow of Chu in the warring states. Period (475 BC-221BC) ever had his battle steed drink from it; Jichang Garden and Yu Gong (foolish man) Valley being Ming dynasty (1368-1644) gardens; the Huishan Temple dating back to the Southern & Northern dynasties (420-589) and the Dragon Brilliance Pagoda on top the Xishan Hill being originally built in 1506. After 1949, more were built in there including the Dragon Brilliance Cave, the Azalea Garden and a zoo.

 

寄畅园：Jichang Garden; 天下第二泉：The Second Best Spring Under Heaven

 

Jichang Garden

Also known as the Qin Family Garden, it, dating, nearly 400 years from the Ming dynasty, is one of the most famous classical gardens in China’s Jiangnan (South-of the Yangtze Region). Efforts were made to upgrade the garden to its artistic perfection on mainly by the two descendents of the Qin family: Qin Yao of the late Ming dynasty and his great-grandson Qin Dezao of the early Qing dynasty. The two had hillocks piled up and spring water from the “Second Best Spring Under Heaven” Led into the garden---all performed by top –notch artisans of the time. Numerous verses &rhymes couples & inscriptions on the garden by the two best-known Qing dynasty emperors Kang Xi & Qian Long are just a proof of their visitations of the place. Outstanding in an old-world and secretive charm, the garden owes it success to the unrivaled location and setting, proper layout, and most remarkably, the various ingeniously applied gardening conceptions and stunts.

 

The Second Best Spring Under Heaven

It is believed that the spring was first discovered during the period of Da Li (766-799) of Emperor Dai Zong the Tang dynasty by a Wuxi County magistrate named Jing Cheng. First called Huishan Spring after the Huishan Hill, its water was judged the second best for making tea by Lu Yu, the eminent Tang dynasty tea connoisseur, hence the name the “Second Best Spring under Heaven”. The five Chinese characters standing for the name seen on the stone inlaid in the wall of a pavilion at the site were Zhao Mengfu’s handwriting. Zhao was a noted artist and calligrapher of the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368).

The Spring presents itself in the form of 3 ponds: the “upper”, the “mid ” & the “lower”, with the water coming from the upper pond tasting the best, being so crystallinely Clear. Eulogized incessantly ever since its emergence by men of letters and ether social celebrities------such as Su Dongpo, a literary giant of the Northern Song dynasty, who wrote in his poem:

Alone, I have come with the “Little Round Moon” from heaven

To savor the “Second Best Spring” water on earth ------the spring has had its fame spread overseas through a Erhu solo entitled “The Moon Reflected in the Second Best Spring” by a blind folk musician from Wuxi Named Hua Yanjun, alias “Blind Ah Bin”.

蠡湖之光The Brilliance of Lake Lihu

The New City of Lake Lihu is a new tourist attraction Wuxi has brought forth, which comprises a free, open lakeside park, residential areas and various public utility and tourist facilities. Within the area, the land transport network and water control system, together with all the new scenic sights and spots such as the Gulls and Egrets Islet, the 100m-high-stream Fountain, The Fatter of Fishery Island, The Grand Lihu Bridge and the Brilliance of Lake Lihu are made to fit in the natural beauty-----a brand-new humanistic, eco-friendly and modern city is taking shape by Lake Lihu.

Wuxi, styled Liangxi, is located in the central part of the Yangtze Delta, reaching up north to the Yangtze River, bounded on the south by Lake Taihu, going east to Shanghai and west to Nanjing.

Covering an area of 4,788km² and with a population of 4.53 million (of which 2.16 live in the City of Wuxi ) the Greater Wuxi now administers 2 outlying cities of Jiangyin and Yixing, in addition to the 7 boroughs that make up the City of Wuxi itself.

A land-water-air transport network makes Wuxi so much easy of access: the north-south direction Xin Chang Railway & Wuxi-Jiangyin Expressway and the east-west direction Shanghai-Naning Rail-way, Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway, the Yangtze River-Side Expressway & The Beijing-HangZhou Grand canal as well as the Wuxi Airport. The city transport is also convenient with over 120 public bus lines and countless cabs.

Long acclaimed as a Land of Fish and Rice, Wuxi, dating back over 3,000 years, is the sublime of a city that excels in China’s Jiangnan for its thriving economy and abundant produce, for its picturesque “bill-and-water” landscape and long history and rice human culture.

Wuxi is a famous tourist city. In addition to the beautiful Lake Taihu, whose most scenic part is in Wuxi, Wuxi attracts people with a large number of historical sites: Taibo’s Grave, Taibo’s Temple, the Ancient Grand Canal, the Jichang Garden, the Second Best Spring under Heaven, Dong Lin Academy of Classical Learning, Xu Xiaka’s Home Village, the Yellow Hill Fortress and Prince Fu Wang’s Mansion of the Heavenly Kingdom 08 Place; and with gardens: the Turtle Head Park, Xi-Hui Park, Liyuan Garden, May Blossom Garden Agalen Garden and Yinyuan Garden; and with karst grottos: Shanjuan Cave, Zhang Gong Cave, Ling Gu Cave, Mu Li Cave and XiShi Cave.

In recent years, Wuxi has been accelerating the work on improving and expanding Lake Taihu National Tourism Holiday Resort and Taihu Film-and-TV cities. New attraction have been coming into being one after another: the Tang Dynasty City, The Three Kingdoms City, The Water Margin City, the Taihu Lake Fairyland, The Ling Shan Wonderland of Buddhism, the Moon-bay Holiday Resort and the New City of Lake Lihu.

While the Huishan Hill Clay figurines and the Wuxi-style embroidery being the best-known folk art and craft products of the city, Wuxi also offers a great variety of local specialties: Wuxi fried gluten, Wuxi park spare-ribs, Wuxi Hao Cha tea, Huishan dough-nuts, Yangshan honey peaches, Yixing pottery, Yixing Zi Sun tea and bulbous lily. Many come to Wuxi for the tasty aquatic food such as the white shrimp, white fish and white bait from Lake Taihu, and the knife fish and Yangtye shad from The Yangtye River.

Tourists are impressed with Wuxi’s good service, feeling welcome and at home.

Welcome to Wuxi——The Shining pearl on Lake Taihu.

 

Mey Blossom Garden

Started in 1912 by the two outstanding Wuxi industrialists Rong Zhongjing and Rong Desheng who purchased a small peach garden from a Qing dynasty Palace Graduate and turned it into a Mey blossom garden with the aim of “Contributing fragrance to the world”. The said garden began with the planting of some 1,000 Mey trees, and it was made to expand eastward with 3,000 more Mey trees added. In 1955, Rong Desheng’s son Rong Yiren, former vice-President of P.R. China, rendered the garden to the Local government. New, as one of the established attractions specially for Mey blossoms in Jiangnan, if also makes an ideal place for enjoying the fragrance of the sweet osmanthus in the mid-autumn time of the year. The garden appears strikingly novel with the hillsides embellished with the blossoming Mey trees, with all the buildings like the pagoda & pavilions properly set among them.

 

Liyuan Garden

As is so said that in the late “Spring and Autumn Period”, Minister Fan Li of The Kingdom of Yue chose to flee his native state together with The Beauty XiShi, after assisting his king to finally subjugate The Kingdom of Wu in 474 B.C. by successfully applying the “beauty trap” strategy. Living a reclusive life, the two enjoyed boating on a Lake which was Later named Lake lihu after the minister. In 1928, a native of Wuxi Wang Yuqing built a garden on the edge of the Lake and named it Liyuan after the lake. Then in 1930 another Wuxi native Chen Meifang put up his garden just next to the Liyuan Garden. Chen called his garden YuZhuang or Fishing Hamlet. In 1952, a long corridor was built by the then Wuxi government linking up and merging the two gardens into one under the name of Liyuan Garden. In 1982, to the garden a new part was added, in which a three-story building called “Spring and Autumn Tower” Stands as the chief attraction.

Backed up by distant hills and the close vast lake, Liyuan Garden showcases an unmistakable characteristic of China’s modern gardens in Jiangnan —— openness.

 

凝春塔 the Ning Chun (concentrated spring) pagoda

(石墨香)

Ling Shan Da Fo or Lingshan Grand Buddha

The 13oo-year-old Xiang Fu Temple is surrounded on three sides by hills: The Miniature Spiritual Vulture Hill or Xiao Ling Shan to the north, The Blue Dragon Hill to the east and the White Tiger Hill to the west. The Buddha statue stands right on top The Xiao Ling Shan —— hence the name of Lingshan Grand Buddha —— gagging under him the ancient shrine, all the hills & the boundless Lake Taihu further south. Eighty-eight m. in high, the statue was built of bronze consuming 700 tons of the material.

灵山大佛：The Bronze Statue of Sakyamuni known as Lingshan Grand Buddha

 

The Turtle Head Park

The park is a peninsula Lake Taihu, part of which juts out like a turtle’s head, hence the name. Just as the literary giant Guo Moruo wrote in praise of the place:

“It is rather round the ‘turtle head’ than any other quarters

That the

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