★ Tourist location: Suzhou Taihu Wetland Park

When it comes to Taihu Lake, people often think of Wuxi first. In fact, it is Suzhou that really accounts for the majority of Taihu Lake, with 70% of the area belonging to Suzhou. The main reason is that Wuxi relies on Taihu Lake to develop a large number of famous tourist attractions, such as Yuantouzhu, Sanguo City, Shuihu City, Liyuan, and Nianhua Bay. There are also many free tourist attractions along Taihu Lake, such as Lihu Wetland Park, Lihu Bridge Park, Lihu Central Park, Fisherman Island, Bogong Island, Light of Lihu Lake, Shili Pearl Dike... Relatively speaking, Suzhou mainly promotes gardens and monuments, but the scenery of Taihu Lake is rarely mentioned.

We often go to Dongshan and Xishan to see the scenery of Taihu Lake. There are not too many artificial gardens, but it looks more authentic. Taihu Wetland Park accounts for more than 70% of the water area, covering four wetland types: river wetlands, lake wetlands, swamp wetlands, and artificial wetlands, including permanent rivers, permanent freshwater lakes, herb swamps, shrub swamps, forest swamps, aquatic ponds, ponds, and irrigation land.

We entered the park from the east gate. We entered the Panda Park. There was a Lake-Watching Square behind it, where we could see the lake. But this lake is not Taihu Lake. It looks like an artificial lake. It turned out that we were heading for Taihu Wetland Park. Who knew that the park was actually not adjacent to Taihu Lake at all?

There is an ancient seven-masted boat by the lake. This kind of boat is a fishing boat for China's freshwater fishery. It is named because of the seven thick masts erected on the boat. It is also known as the "Seven Fans". It is also known as the "Living Fossil" and is also one of the landmarks of Taihu Lake. However, without Taihu Lake as a background, this ancient boat does not look so beautiful. Many scenic spots related to Taihu Lake have such boats, and the most beautiful one is Yuantouzhu. Especially when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, it is simply so beautiful that there are no words to describe it.

There is a cruise ship terminal by the lake. The ticket stops at four terminals. Each terminal is limited to one ride, and the fare is reasonable. We rented a tandem bicycle and planned to tour the shore area first. However, we quickly found that the roads here were not suitable for cycling, because many of them had bridges and steps, so we still had to get off and walk before coming back to continue cycling. Therefore, this car seems a little useless, but you have to go to the return point.

Maybe we are not here in season, and we don't actually see any birds in the bird watching booth. There are a few egrets occasionally, but these birds are common.

The area on the left side of the east gate is planted with many aquatic plants, including the Day-leaf Floating Botanical Garden and the Adjacent Plant Observation Corridor. There are also several pavilions along the way, with straightforward names, like Lubai Pavilion, which is for watching reed flowers. Yinhe Pavilion is for watching lotus flowers. Although the lake surface is relatively open in the Bishui Pavilion, the green color cannot be seen.

Shuibaxian Scenic Area is a small island with lakes and lush aquatic plants. Shuibaxian is a traditional food in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. It is also known as Shuibaxian. It refers to the edible plants produced in eight kinds of water, including Zizania japonica, lotus root, water cress, gorgon euryale, wild rice, water chestnut, water schreberi, and water chestnut. None of them are rare. Except for the sauce, the other seven delicacies are not expensive. Gorgon euryale is what we often call chicken head rice. Because the water quality requirements are relatively high and the output is limited, the price remains high.

Crossing the bridge west is another small island. The main attraction on the island is the Giant Panda Science Museum. It may be that my country's panda breeding technology has gradually matured, and many parks will build giant panda halls. Looking at their living place, we all envy it. This is a proper villa area!

Next to it is the Panda Theme Square, covering an area of nearly 3,000 square meters. It is a comprehensive leisure square integrating entertainment, catering and shopping. When I passed by the Meixiang Pavilion, I didn't pay attention to whether plum trees were planted everywhere. Anyway, they don't bloom now, and we don't really recognize them. From here, there is a Luyu Bridge connected to the long embankment, but the road is a bit far and bicycles are not very practical, so I might as well head north in the direction of the East Gate.

It connects to another island to the north. There is an octagonal pavilion next to the lake, and there is Peninsula Tea on the island, but the scenery here is not necessarily that special. I am also quite curious about the name of the teahouse, because this island is obviously not connected to the mainland and cannot be called a peninsula. I guess it was just named to listen to it.

After returning the bus, we went to the dock to take a cruise ship. The water area of the Expo Pier will be even larger. Although it is also an island, most of the island is filled with lakes. There is actually a racecourse next to it. I feel that building a racecourse here seems a bit too extravagant.

Because the water area is large, there are bridges everywhere you go. These bridges are named after historical figures, such as Taibo Bridge, Zhongyong Bridge, Luozu Bridge, etc. There is also a bird watching tower here, but I still haven't seen any birds. However, there are many black swans and some waterbirds in Swan Lake.

The main building here is the New Expo Suzhou Pavilion. The pavilion includes the Expo Suzhou Pavilion Area, Wetland Experience Area, Waterfront Landscape Area, and Reception Area. It mainly displays the historical heritage, culture, ecological environment and other contents of the Taihu Lake Basin. The Meteorite Science Exhibition is quite interesting. It displays Lingyunshi, one of the six major evidence chains of Taihu Crater. Its appearance is very similar to iron meteorites. Anyway, we can't see anything about these meteorites.

The small island in the north has lakeside beaches and bathing baths. It is actually a place for playing with water in summer. There are beach volleyball courts, but no one is seen playing it. I guess this sport is not popular enough. There is also a dock here, right next to the fish sacrifice pavilion.

Take a boat to Taoyuan Wharf, next to Peacock Garden. The main building of this island is the Tropical Psammophyte Museum, which displays a series of psammophyte plants, mainly including American plants, African plants and Australia plants. There are novel plants such as the century-old cactus, the 4.7-meter-high American giant Wulun Pillar, and the first tropical mango tree in Jiangsu Province. But how to put it, unless you are someone who really loves them, you might as well go to the Zhongshan Botanical Garden, which is larger in scale and has more plant species.

Back at the Dongmen Pier, to the right, there is Lohas Forest, covering an area of 20,000 square meters. It has jungle campsites, lakeside campsites, barbecue areas, water fishing, expansion activities, etc. There are many projects to play and the place is large enough. Unfortunately, it is not the type we like.