Shuimogou Park 水磨沟公园

About Shuimogou Park

Shuimogou Park (水磨沟公园) is the core zone of the Shuimogou Scenic Area (水磨沟风景区) in the northeast of Shuimogou District (水磨沟区), Ürümqi (乌鲁木齐): about 4 square kilometres made up of Qingquan (清泉山), Wenquan (温泉山) and Hongqiao (虹桥山) hills and the spring-fed Shuimo River (水磨河).

Within the park the river winds from Longkou Spring (龙口泉), the largest natural spring among its sources, which gushes up to about a metre high, down to the gate. In 1885 Pan Xiaosu (潘效苏) had a stone dragon head carved there so the water poured down the cliff, and renamed it Musheng Spring (慕圣泉), likening the clear water to the emperor's virtue; people still call it Longkou. Because the river gathers this spring and many others in the gorge, locals also call it Wanquan River (万泉河, 'river of ten thousand springs'). Visiting in 1877, the Qing official Shi Shanchang (史善长) saw hundreds of springs gushing in the gorge and wrote a poem in their praise. The warm spring at the Xiangfei Bath (香妃出浴) stays between 28 and 32 degrees Celsius all year.

The valley was first called Longkou. From the Qianlong reign officials and private owners harnessed the water to run mills that ground grain for the garrison and residents, which gave the river and valley the name Shuimo, 'watermill'. Milling peaked in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when 41 mills worked between here and Weihuliang (苇湖梁) in 1940; after the Ürümqi flour mill was founded in 1952 the watermills gradually went out of use. In 1901 the Qing nobles Zaiyi (载漪) and Zailan (载澜) were exiled to Ürümqi as scapegoats after the Eight-Nation Alliance entered Beijing, and Zailan built pavilions here, including Xiaocao Pavilion (萧曹亭). Its name, from the Han ministers Xiao He and Cao Can, reportedly voiced his resentment of Empress Dowager Cixi's regency. Mao Zemin (毛泽民) convalesced in it in September 1941; the present pavilion dates from 1984.

The gate is a Qing-style tiered building whose arched entrance spans 14.26 metres. Just inside, across the Nine Dragon Bridge (九龙桥), stands a statue of Ji Xiaolan (纪晓岚), who toured the valley during his exile to Xinjiang from 1768 and wrote verse about it. Hanwen Ridge (翰文岭), built in three stages from 1999, runs 360 metres with poems carved on granite, reliefs of Ji Xiaolan's poems and miniature copies of eight Xinjiang rock-art sites. A replica watermill of 1992 stands by the river among many millstones, and residents come there to dance and rest. The Shuimogou Scenic Area was rated a national 4A scenic area in 2006.

What to look for

• Longkou Spring (龙口泉), the main spring of the Shuimo River, below Xiaocao Pavilion
• Xiaocao Pavilion (萧曹亭), Zailan's pavilion of 1901, rebuilt in 1984
• Qingquan Temple (清泉寺) on the mid-slope of Qingquan Hill, seat of the Ürümqi Buddhist Association
• The 1992 replica watermill house with wooden wheels 1.5 and 4 metres across
• Hanwen Ridge (翰文岭), 360 metres of carved poems, reliefs and copies of Xinjiang rock art
• The Xiangfei Bath (香妃出浴) statue and the Xiangfei Stone (香妃石) by the warm spring
• Jieguan Pavilion (接官亭), built in 2003 after Zailan's original reception pavilion collapsed in the Republican era
• The Arrow Pavilion (箭亭) over the pond near the gate, where visitors take out small boats

Location & getting there

Getting to Shuimogou Park

• Search for 水磨沟公园 with 乌鲁木齐市 and 水磨沟区.