Address：158 Xinggang street, Wuzhong District, Suzhou
Introduction of Jinji Lake
Jinji Lake is located in Suzhou Industrial Park. Compared with the ancient city area, the high-rise buildings and modernization in this area show another side of Suzhou. Jinji Lake is slightly larger than Hangzhou West Lake. Every day, many tourists come to the lake for a leisurely walk, shopping and eating. Many people also like to take wedding photos by the lake. There are four entrances in the scenic area, which is an open park. From the west entrance, you can see Suzhou’s new landmark “Oriental gate” skyscraper and vulgar dust “big underpants”. There is a subway station near Xikou, and there is a bicycle rental spot outside the subway station. It’s very convenient for tourists who want to cycle around the lake.
If you are a couple or bring children to play, you can also take a water bus directly from wanghuge pier to the opposite moonlight pier, or walk to the ferris wheel park by the lake, and take the ferris wheel to overlook the whole lake.
The night scene of Jinji Lake can’t be missed. You can pay to take a cruise ship from Yueyue pier in the east of lake or wanghuge pier in the west of lake at night. The whole journey takes about 40 minutes. The lighting show created by digital lighting and other high-tech means is a beautiful scenery of Jinji Lake at night.
The origin of the name
In the spring and Autumn period, qiongji, the daughter of Fu Chai, king of Wu, lost her father’s love after Gou Jian paid tribute to Xi Shi. Fu Chai and Xi Shi enjoyed themselves in gushutai, Lingyan mountain in the west of Suzhou city. Qiongji finds out that Gou Jian has ulterior motives, and several times puts forward to her father to be on guard against Gou Jian. Fu Chai didn’t believe it. On the contrary, he listened to Xi Shi’s words and drove qiongji to a desert island in the Weiming Lake in the east of Suzhou city to “face the lake and think about the past.”.
Later, when the Yue army came to Gusu City, in order to protect his life, Fu Chai prepared to give his daughter to Gou Jian as a “gift” to beg for peace. When Joan heard the news, she jumped into the lake and killed herself. Legend has it that people call this lake “qiongji Lake” in memory of qiongji. Because of the similar pronunciation of “qiongji” and “Jinji” in Wu dialect, “qiongji Lake” is gradually called “Jinji Lake”.
Development and evolution
In 1707, Changzhou county set up a stele in huangshiqiaotu on the West Bank of Jinji Lake, in which the name of the lake “Jinjing Lake” appeared.
In 1761, Yuanhe county annals, which was printed and published in the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, recorded: “Jinjing lake, a Jinjing lake, a Jinji Lake.” The name of Jinji Lake may come from the wrong sound of Jinjing.
In 1890, Li chaoqiong, the magistrate of Yuanhe County, wrote in his diary that Jinji Lake and the dike of Jinji Lake, which was later called “Ligong dike”, were freely used by “Jinjing Lake” and “Jinji Lake”. This shows that in the late Qing Dynasty, the name of Jinji Lake has not been determined. It also shows that Jinji Lake was not formed for a long time.
In the 1990s, with the development and construction of Suzhou Industrial Park, Jinji Lake began to transform from fish pond to resort. In May 1997, Jinji Lake was officially put under the management of Suzhou Industrial Park, and the overall development and management of Jinji Lake began.
In 1998, the comprehensive environmental treatment project of Jinji Lake was officially launched. Suzhou Industrial Park specially commissioned an American company to prepare the landscape planning of the area around the lake.
In March 1999, the construction of Hubin Avenue, the first landscape project of Jinji Lake, started.
In 2003, the dredging project of Jinji Lake officially started.
On March 28, 2004, Jinjihu bridge was completed and opened to traffic.
On March 11, 2005, the dredging project of Jinji Lake was completed and the dam was opened to store water.
In December 2006, ligongdi on Jinji Lake was renovated and opened.
On the evening of May 31, 2014, Jinji Lake old music fountain held its last curtain call performance, which was watched by tens of thousands of people.
On the evening of February 1, 2018, after nearly four years of renovation, Jinji Lake music fountain was reopened.
Location context
The center of Jinji Lake is located at 31 ° 18 ′ N and 120 ° 42 ′ e. it is located in the northeast of Suzhou old city and the regional center of Suzhou Industrial Park. It faces Dushu Lake across Ligong dike in the south. Most of the coastline along the lake is in Loufeng (Xietang) territory, and the northeast part of the lake is in Weiting (Kuatang) territory, with a water area of 7.4 square kilometers.
climatic conditions
Jinji Lake belongs to subtropical humid monsoon climate zone, warm and rainy, monsoon is obvious, four seasons are distinct, winter and summer are long, spring and autumn are short, annual average temperature is 15.7 ℃, annual average precipitation is 1063 mm. The most frequent wind direction is southeast wind (summer), followed by northwest wind (winter).
hydrographic features
Jinji Lake is a tributary of Taihu Lake. The bottom of the lake is relatively flat, with an average water depth of about 1.8 meters. There are deep ditches in the north-south direction, with the deepest depth of 5 meters. Ships sail along the ditch to form a route. There is a deep pool in the East and west of the lake, and the West pool is 5 meters deep.
There are more than 10 inlets and outlets in Jinji Lake, with the water from Nalou River in the north and xiangmentang and fengmentang in the west, with a volume of 13 million cubic meters. The effluent mainly flows into Wusong River through Xietang River, so it belongs to Wusong River system. The lake is rich in water and grass, clear and rich in fish and shrimp. It was once one of the top ten freshwater lakes with high fish production in China.
Main attractions
Jinji Lake has eight landscapes: water screen movie · music fountain, water Ferris wheel, ink long dike · Ligong dike, lakeside Avenue · Yuanrong sculpture, moonlight wharf, peach blossom island · Linglong Island, spring to lakeside, Jinji Lake Bridge · waterfall.
Ferris wheel
Suzhou Ferris wheel park is located at No. 99, Right Bank Street, East Bank of Jinji Lake. It is a cultural water corridor landscape area and south side of modern leisure square. It is a theme park with a total area of 38000 square meters.
The main project in the park, Ferris wheel, is 120 meters high and is the largest water Ferris wheel in China. It has 60 pods imported from Switzerland, which can accommodate 360 people at the same time. From the ferris wheel, it can overlook Jinji Lake and Suzhou Industrial Park. The lighting effect of Ferris wheel is designed by Japanese company. Laser light is installed in the central area. 3000 square meters of LED light is installed on the huge circular turntable of Ferris wheel. The peripheral aperture is called “changeable expression”, which can simulate various visual effects according to different time and environment.
In addition to Ferris wheel, there are also hanging roller coaster, double carousel, passion disco, electric kart and other amusement facilities in the ferris wheel theme park. Under the ferris wheel, there are European style Castle Restaurant and pirate ship restaurant.
Li Gongdi
Ligong dike is a long dike in Jinji Lake, with a total length of 1400 meters. It was built by Li chaoqiong, the magistrate of Yuanhe County in Guangxu period. After its completion, it facilitated the transportation between Yuanhe county and the eastern part of Jinji Lake, and Xietang gradually became a market town. The ancient stele on the dike still records the scene of merchants gathering in those days.
Ligongdi is positioned as an international style commercial water street integrating high-end catering, entertainment, sightseeing, leisure and culture. The total construction area of phase I to phase IV of ligongdi is 258000 square meters, of which the architectural style of phase I retains the traditional Suzhou residential form and gathers shopping and catering businesses at home and abroad; phase II focuses on theme bars, music restaurants, coffee bars and other catering industries, including the first leisure and entertainment block in Suzhou – ligongdi 1912 bar block; phase III is a cultural pedestrian street with embroidery shops The fourth phase is under construction.
Lake Island
Taohua island is located in the center of Suzhou Jinji Lake scenic area, covering an area of 100000 square meters. Peach blossom accounts for 50% of the total vegetation. There are two landscape buildings on Taohua Island, one of which is the landmark building in Jinji Lake – “Ziyin Pavilion”. “Ziyin Pavilion” comes from Ziqi. You can overlook the scenery of Jinji Lake from a high altitude. The other is Taohuayuan tea house, which is a combination of Chinese and Western architecture. Facing Taohua island is another Linglong island in the center of Jinji Lake, where hundreds of wetland and aquatic plants are planted.
Taohua island has the function of transportation, which is equivalent to the water sightseeing hub of Jinji Lake. Tourists can take the speedboat from the West wanghuge wharf of Jinji Lake, or take the happiness special line boat from the ferris wheel park to visit the island.
Musical fountain
Jinji Lake music fountain covers an area of 28000 square meters. It adopts the design concept of water art theater to arrange water dance movements. That is to say, each water column and different water types are regarded as actors. Through dance arrangement, the water dance art is displayed in the form of song and dance drama.
Bridge waterfall
Jinji Lake Bridge is 2.15 km long and spans Jinji Lake. The bridge deck is 57.2m wide. In order to facilitate tourists to enjoy the night view of Jinji Lake, the slow lane in the South half of the bridge is designed to be wider than usual, reaching about 8 meters. As night falls, the colorful digital waterfall made by digital lighting and other high-tech means falls on the lake from the bridge. When “flowing”, it will present different patterns and words. Therefore, it is called Jinji Lake Bridge · waterfall and one of the eight scenic spots of Jinji Lake.
Ticket price: Free
Hours
Jinji Lake Waterfront platform is open all day; Jinji Lake music fountain is open once a week from 20:00 to 20:30 every Friday evening.
Traffic routes
Metro
Take Suzhou Metro Line 1 to dongfangzhimen station, Cultural Expo Center Station and Times Square Station.
Bus
Take Suzhou bus No.138, 258, 307 to xiangzhangyuan road or Hubin Avenue station and walk for 5 minutes.
Take Suzhou bus 108, 120, 168, 258 and Ye2 to motianlun Park Station, and walk for 5 minutes.
Take Suzhou bus No.2, No.47, No.106, No.108, No.120 east line, No.120 inner ring air conditioner, No.120 outer ring air conditioner, No.129, No.156, No.206, no.215, no.219, no.258, No.812, No.2 express line and No.2 night line to the International Expo Center Station, and walk for 7 or 8 minutes.
Service facilities
tourist center, free travel manual, baby chair rental, wheelchair rental