Jiangsu - Wuxi by Gordon 无锡

Wuxi

     - Gordon

   

Shanghai Day 3
Laoshan Hostel, Wuxi Turtlehead Peninsula, Wuxi city center

Turtle Head Peninsula (鼋头渚) and Fairy Island (太湖仙岛)

Taihu Lake (太湖)



    Like Suzhou, again, we took the high speed train to Wuxi. We started our journey from Turtle Head Peninsula, a famous scenic park in Wuxi. It is one of the islands located northwest shore of Taihu Lake. It gets its name because of a huge rock projecting into the lake, appearing as it a swimming turtle tossing its head. Guess what? There are real turtles. There was a beautiful island nearby. It's called Fairy Island. When you look at a map, it will look like two turtles: A big turtle with a baby turtle. 

Boats and lotus in Taihu Lake

Fake rocky mountain with bloody red maple tree



Finding Tadpoles

Bamboo forest

   The beginning of my journey was on the Turtle Head Peninsula. Do you know how old it is? It is exactly 100 years old. It was first founded in 1916. As we went down towards the ferry dock of Fairy Island, we saw boats and lotus in the lake. Too bad, the lotus did not have flowers yet. It was in an early summer. There was a fake mountain made with rocks in front of a bloody red maple tree. We were very lucky to find real living tadpoles in the lake. Passing by the emerald green bamboo forest, we reached the ferry dock. 

Taihu Lake

To the ferry

On the ferry

    The ferry led us to the majestic Fairy Island. The view on the ferry was beautiful. We saw the clear water, the green hills, and pretty islands of Taihu Lake.

A statue on the lake
范蠡

Memorial Gateway
仙岛影壁

Fisherman and his turtle

Ancient money
(太湖通宝)

    We finally arrived at the Fairy Island. Look, a fisherman caught a turtle!  We took some picture at the giant Memorial Gateway. Meeting Immortals Bridge （会仙桥） is a good spot to see Taihu Lake, even tough it was very windy that day.  A huge model of an ancient coin was the first thing that caught my attention. You might wonder if it broke down because of the hole in the middle. The answer is that ancient people put strings inside the hole and tied it so it would become a loop of money.



Heaven Emperor's Palace
凌霄宫

Climb up
the pagoda

Buddha

    Heaven Emperor's Palace was a 6-7 story pagoda building. The top two floors were sealed. Inside was a lot of Buddha. There was a big one and many small ones. 

Buddha

Osmanthus cake

Specialty Restaurant
on Wuxi Soup Dumpling

     We took a bus to the city center for dinner. The Osmanthus cake was very yummy. We had sausage. Wuxi Soup dumpling was my favorite even though it was sweeter compared to Shanghai soup dumpling. We also had mild flavored fried chicken. Again, at night time, we had waxberries, the fruit I can only get in China. I love it's sweet and sour taste.

City center

     Wuxi is full of fun. Walking along Turtle head Peninsula gives you good exercise and a beautiful scenery. Enjoy the food. It is the sweeeeeetest city of Eastern China, according to my tummy. Next time you get bored, take a vacation, relax and enjoy the scenery. 

Waxberries
杨梅