Liyuan Park and Lihu Lake were both named after Fan Li, a well-known Chinese politician from over 2,000 years ago. It is said that Fan spent his retirement life here with Xi Shi, who is renowned as one of the four great beauties of history.
Built along Lihu Lake, Liyuan Park is a must-see attraction in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province. Covering an area of about 12.8 hectares, the park is filled with peach trees, sweet-scented osmanthus trees, lotus, and water lilies.
It also has winding paths, corridors, pavilions, arch bridges, and other buildings commonly seen in Jiangnan gardens.
In the middle of Lihu Lake lies four pavilions, each representing a season, with their lattice window and patterned floorings decorated with seasonal plants.
From spring to winter, plum blossom, oleander, sweet-scented osmanthus, and wintersweet are spotlighted in the pavilions respectively.
The four pavilions are also the best places to admire lotus flowers in summer. Walking along the embankment that connects the pavilions, visitors can take a close look at blooming lotus flowers.
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