The Scenic Spot of Dragon Pond

The Scenic Spot of Dragon Pond (龍池風景區) is located at the west Suzhou city. The area is about 1.5 kilometer squared with green mountain and water superb view. It is the most attractive and best scenic spot of the White Horse Brook Ecological Park in Suzhou (蘇州白馬澗生態園).

With a geographical history of 100 million years, the ancient Dragon pond features the water influxing into the hills all year long, maintaining its image of brightness and beauty. Dragon pond lies down in the green hills and looks like a pool on the heaven, as if the green water is connected with the sky and of the same hue. Qianlong, the emperor of Qing dynasty was drunk with the beautiful water and wrote the following words with his soft and sincere cursive handwriting: “the bight mirror reflecting the cloud”.

Dragon Pond was named after the its shape just looks like the head of a dragon (see here). Yeah.. it is very beautiful scene, a sheet of green skyey water, clear and flowing smoothly along the hills. We may also enjoy rafting here (cost: 50 rmb/person for half an hour).

Besides of Dragon Pond, there are also some recreational spot such as: Horse Pond, Cloud Valley Waterfall, Tower of Ambition, Longetivity God Stone, Children Playground and more. There are cherry blossoms tree around the Horse Pond. But the blossoms are almost fall all over at this month. Also try playing the Walk-On-Water Ball (cost: 20 rmb/ball for 10 minutes) at Horse Pond, it's fun!


The scenic area is holding the exhibition of gigantic kites. There are dragons, birds, butterflies, insects, fairies and more kind of large and small kites hanging all over the park. The exhibition holds from April 15, 2007 until May 8, 2007.


Related information:

• Transportation (How to get there):
  - Bus 333 straight to The Scenic Spot of Dragon Pond
  - Bus 44 or 302 to Huashan Road and change bus 333
  - Bus 308 or 301 to B-Market besides Heshan Bridge and change bus 333
• Ticket price: 50 rmb/person (group: 31 rmb/person)
• Open hours: 08:15 ~ 17:00
• Website: http://www.szlongchi.com/english.php

Lake Taihu - Turtle Head Peninsula

Lake Taihu (太湖) is a famous scenic spot in China. Turtle Head Peninsula (黿頭渚), located in the northwest shore of Lake Taihu, gets its name because of its huge rocks projecting into the lake, appearing as if a swimming turtle tossing its head. It is endowed by nature, with green hills and clear water. Tourist call it "the best tesort on Lake Taihu" and consider it as the best spot to enjoy the natural beauty on Lake Taihu. Mr. Guo Moruo, a well-known poet wrote a poem in praise: The supreme view of Lake Taihu scenery, after all, lies in Turtle Head Peninsula ("太湖佳絕處, 畢竟在黿頭").

Company arranged a tour to YuanTouZhu (Turtle Head Peninsula) last Sunday. We set up from Kunshan at 8 o'clock in the morning with travel bus. The drive is around one and a half hour.

Arrived at YuanTouZhu, the weather is a little bit foggy. There are already crowd of people visiting at that time. We directly move to the quay and queue for the boat going to Fairy Islands (太湖仙島). The Fairy Islands really looks like a swimming turtle tossing its head (see here).


Fairy Islands, as its name, has a lot of 'fairy' scenic spots here, such as: South-Heaven Gate (南天門), Water-Curtained Cave (水廉洞) of the Monkey King SunWuKong, Taoist Altar (太乙天壇), Lying Buddha (臥佛), Great Bronze Statue of Lao Zi (老子銅像), Heavon Emperor Palace (靈霄宮), and more. There are many places to visit here as we waste around 2 hours and then queue for about half an hour for the boat back to main quay.

On the main scenic area, there are two places must visit: Superb View of Taihu Lake (太湖佳絕處) and Sino-Japan friendship Cherry Woods (中日櫻花友誼林). It is especially beautiful in spring while pink and white cherry blossoms are blooming.


Overall, Lake Taihu view is great, but Lake Xihu is much more beautiful of course.

Related information:

• Transportation (How to get there):
  Take K1 or K87 bus from Wuxi Train Station (fare 2 rmb, duration 30 to 40 minutes)
• Ticket price: 105 rmb/person (group: 61 rmb/person)
• Open hours: 06:00 ~ 17:00
• Website:
  1. http://www.ytz.com.cn/
  2. http://www.jstour.com/col992/info.htm1?infoid=4033

Shanghai Outlets

Last Sunday I went to Shanghai Outlets (上海奧特萊斯). Actually planned to visit FoxTown Factory Outlets (狐狸城) but did not go there since it was under renovation. Anyway I did not plan to buy anything, just want to enjoy window-shopping only.

Shanghai Outlets area is rather big (around 1.5 kilometer squared) with more than 200 shops in it. It also provides around 1000 capacities for the parking lot. The shopping area is divided into 3 regions A, B and C. Each shop stands around 100 to 500 meter squared.


We may see some international brands outlet at Region A, such as Armani, Versace, Dunhill, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, etc. It is called the elite region, but we may get the discount up to 70% off here.


Region B is where mid-range brands such as Nike, Adidas, Lacoste, Esprit, Levi's, Reebok, Sisley, Benetton, Clarks, and more and more brands that are familiar to us available here. We may also find Starbucks Coffee at the entrance to this region.


Region C mainly resides restaurants such as Ristró, KFC, Bi Feng Tang (避風塘), Sweeties (甜蜜蜜) and other Taiwanese, Hongkong and Italian food restaurants. Seems that Ristró is great for the Italian food, and you may try Sweeties for Hongkong food. That day I ate Roasted Duck Rice and Wonton Soup at Bi Feng Tang and they taste so so. Hongkong Wonton is far more delicious.


This region also has some known brands shop as Fila, Playboy, U. S. Polo, Easy Shop, and so on. But shops here mostly have less people visiting.

Overall, I think the place is great. We can enjoy outlet shopping with a different feeling as in a mall. There is also a kids outlet that provides children playground (Region B). And we may enjoy the tea time for a cup of Starbucks. So relax!


Related information:

• Address: 2888 Huqingping Road, Shanghai, China
• Transportation (How to get there):
  1. Private car: Off Zhaoxiang exit with A9 to QingPu around 200 meters
  2. Public bus (fare 8 rmb, duration 45 minutes to 1 hour):
  - Bus station near Shanghai stadium (10 rmb)
  - Shangzhu xian, from Shanghai South Station Square
  - Bus station at the Puan Lu and JinLing Lu intersection (within walking distance from Lane Crawford/Times Square)
• Open hours: 10:00 ~ 21:00
• Website: www.outlets.sh.cn