Xihui Park is a key state park of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

located west of

Wuxi Wuxi ( zh, s=无锡, p=Wúxī, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu, China. As of the 2024 census, it had a population of 7,495,000. The city lies in the southern Yangtze delta and borders Lake Tai. Notable landmarks include Lihu Park, the Mt. Lings ...

in eastern

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

. It was established in 1958 and commands historically famous views overlooking the city, the adjacent Grand Canal, and nearby

Lake Tai Taihu (), also known as Lake Tai or Lake Taihu, is a lake in the Yangtze Delta and the third largest freshwater lake in China. The lake is in Jiangsu province and a significant part of its southern shore forms its border with Zhejiang. With ...

. Its grounds include the Jichang Garden, the Second Spring under Heaven, the Dragon Light Pagoda, and a cable car connecting the park to the summit of Mount Hui. Local legend purports that Xishan was once visited by the

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Shi Huangdi Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary dynasty in Chine ...

Name

The park is named for Mount Xi (t , s , ''Xīshān'', lit. "Tin Hill") on its grounds and for nearby Mount Hui (lit. "Kindhearted Hill"), which is administered separately as the Huishan National Forest Park.

Features

Garden

Jichang Garden is a famous traditional

Chinese garden The Chinese garden is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. It includes both the vast gardens of the Emperor of China, Chinese emperors and members of the imperial family, built for pleasure and to impress, and t ...

Spring

The Second Spring under Heaven was the inspiration for the blind ''

erhu The (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, that is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two-stringed fiddle''. It is used as a solo instrument as ...

'' player Abing's most famous composition, the ''Erquan Yingyue''.

Pagoda

Dragon Light Pagoda (t , s , ''Lóngguāng Tǎ'') is a seven-story brick-and-wood octagonal

pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...

located at the crest of Xishan. It commands a traditional scenic view of nearby

and the Grand Canal running through Wuxi, but a cable car between Xihui Park and the crest of Mount Hui (elev. ) now offers a higher vantage point. Constructed as a temple during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

, the original pagoda burnt during the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

and was subsequently rebuilt. The pagoda's grounds were used as a "beggar's refuge" for the housing and training of Wuxi's indigent poor during the

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

an period. As the city is named for the hill it stands on,Frommer's Short Cuts. ''Eastern Central China, including Qingdao and Nanjing''
p. 79
Accessed 21 November 2013. the pagoda is sometimes used as a symbol of Wuxi.

References

Parks in Wuxi Tourist attractions in Jiangsu {{Jiangsu-geo-stub