Slender West Lake is the scenic centrepiece of Yangzhou — a long, sinuous waterway shaped to wind through the city rather than occupy the landscape, with weeping willows, pavilions, and bridges composing a series of careful views. The lake covers about 30 hectares and can be walked in its entirety in two hours, though most visitors take longer because each turning offers something new.
The park's showpiece is the Five Pavilion Bridge (Wuting Qiao), a Qing Dynasty arch bridge with five hexagonal pavilions arranged on its span like a lotus flower. The reflection in the lake on still mornings is the most reproduced image in Yangzhou. The park also contains Xiaojinshan Island, the Fishing Terrace (from which Qianlong is said to have fished), and several classical pavilion groupings. Boat rides on the lake are available and popular. The park is worth visiting both for the scenery and for the sense of how extraordinary the wealth generated by salt trading actually was.