Shunfengshan Park 顺峰山公园

About Shunfengshan Park

Shunfengshan Park (顺峰山公园) is a large municipal park in Daliang Subdistrict (大良街道) of Shunde District (顺德区), Foshan, at the foot of Taiping Mountain (太平山) in the northwest of Shunde's new town. It is counted among the Ten New Sights of Shunde (顺德新十景).

Building started in 1999, the works were finished on 24 October 2002, and the park opened to the public in October 2004. Its 8,209 mu (about 5.47 km²) take in two hills, Taiping Mountain and Shenbu Mountain (神步山), and two lakes, Guipan Lake (桂畔湖) and Qingyun Lake (青云湖). The main axis for visitors links these lakes with two pagodas, Qingyun Pagoda (青云塔) and Jiuzhai Pagoda (旧寨塔), and the grounds are laid out as 24 scenic zones. Locals often call it Shunfeng Park (顺峰公园), although on older maps that name belonged to a separate place to the north.

The park's emblem is a giant stone-faced paifang (牌坊) gateway, nicknamed China's No. 1 Paifang (中华第一牌坊) for its size. It is 88 m wide and about 38 m high and weighs 14,000 tonnes, with three arched spans, the central one 35 m across. Between the arches hang sixteen hollow marble dragon columns, each 12 m long and carved with three dragons, bolted upside down from the top with their ends 5 m above the ground. The reinforced-concrete frame is clad in granite; the front carries the park's name and the north face reads 'Shunfeng Lansheng' (顺峰揽胜, 'taking in the views of Shunfeng').

Qingyun Pagoda on Shenbu Mountain is nearly four centuries older than the park. First named Shenbu Pagoda (神步塔), it was put up in 1602, in the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty, by the county magistrate Ni Shangzhong (倪尚忠). The eight-sided brick tower has seven storeys in the pavilion style and stands 45.4 m tall. Shunde County listed it as a protected cultural relic on 18 May 1991, and Guangdong made it a provincial protected site on 17 July 2002.

What to look for

• The paifang gateway (牌坊), 88 m wide, with sixteen marble dragon columns hanging from its top
• Qingyun Pagoda (青云塔), an eight-sided, seven-storey brick pagoda of 1602 on Shenbu Mountain, a Guangdong provincial protected site
• Jiuzhai Pagoda (旧寨塔), the second pagoda on the park's main axis
• Qingyun Lake (青云湖) and Guipan Lake (桂畔湖)
• Guihai Fangcong Art Museum (桂海芳丛艺术馆)
• The Tingzhi (汀芷园) and Yazheng (雅正园) gardens
• A cycle path whose inner loop runs about 3.36 km

Location & getting there

Getting to Shunfengshan Park

• Search for 顺峰山公园 with 佛山市 and 顺德区.