Lake Tai (Taihu)

Lake Tai defines Wuxi in the way that lakes define very few Chinese cities. The southwestern shore, where the city meets the water, is a fourteen-kilometre stretch of parks, gardens, and pavilions. The lake itself — three times the size of Hong Kong — is visible from many parts of the city, and its characteristic flat light (grey-silver in morning mist, blue-gold in afternoon sun) gives Wuxi much of its character.

Boat tours from the Turtle Head Isle dock allow exploration of the Sanshan (Three Hills) islands in the middle of the lake, where there are temples and elevated views back toward the city. The best time to be on the water is early morning, before the tour boats multiply. The hairy crabs raised in the lake's reed beds are the city's most celebrated ingredient and are served in the restaurant strips near the southern parks from September to December.

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A story
Lake Tai covers 2,250 square kilometres and is the third-largest freshwater lake in China, yet it rarely exceeds two metres in depth — it is more marsh than lake, spread thin across the flat Yangtze Delta. The Taihu scholar's rocks that decorate classical gardens across China were all quarried from its limestone bed, and the most famous specimens were taken centuries ago, leaving the lake shaped by its own abstraction.

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