Yuantouzhu (Turtle Head Isle)

National Scenic Area On Lake Tai; One Of The Three Largest Cherry Blossom Viewing Sites In The World, Laid Out As A Landscape Garden From 1916 · Wuxi, Jiangsu

A peninsula shaped like a turtle putting its head into Lake Tai, which is where the name comes from, laid out as a landscape garden from 1916 by a succession of wealthy Wuxi families and now the best place to stand on the third largest freshwater lake in China. Guo Moruo wrote that Tai Lake is at its best here and the line is on the rock at the entrance. The park runs for several kilometres along the shore through pavilions, causeways, a Buddhist temple, a small island reached by ferry called Sanshan, and long stretches of open water where the lake goes to the horizon. What it is genuinely famous for is cherry blossom: around thirty thousand trees, many of them gifts from Japanese groups from the 1980s onward, make this one of the three largest cherry viewing sites in the world, and for about a fortnight in late March and early April the entire city of Wuxi appears to be here. Outside that fortnight it is a large, calm, rather old-fashioned lakeside park.

1 Huanhu Road, Binhu District, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China

Generally open daily, roughly 8:00-17:30 with extended hours and night illumination during the CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL in late March and early April - the dates move every year with the weather. TIMED REAL-NAME BOOKING is used in blossom season and the site can sell out. The Sanshan Island ferry is usually included in the ticket and stops in high wind. An internal shuttle runs the peninsula and is effectively needed given the distances.

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