Yingzhou West Lake 颍州西湖

About Yingzhou West Lake

Yingzhou West Lake (颍州西湖) is a rebuilt lake and wetland scenic area on the west side of urban Fuyang (阜阳), in Yingzhou District (颍州区), Anhui.

Fuyang was known as Yingzhou (颍州), which gave the lake its name, after the Northern Wei set up the prefecture in 528. The old lake lay where four waters, the Ying (颍河), the Qing (清河), the Xiaoru (小汝河) and the Bailong ditch (白龙沟), once met. It rose in the Tang: after an official waterway from Yangzhou through Yingzhou began carrying supplies towards the capital in the late Tang, the lake gradually flourished, and it reached its height in the Song. Yan Shu (晏殊), Ouyang Xiu (欧阳修) and Su Shi (苏轼) all held office in Yingzhou. Ouyang Xiu built three bridges linking islands in the lake and wrote ten songs to the tune 'Caisangzi' (采桑子) that open with 'West Lake is fine' (西湖好). Su Shi dredged the lake, and the silt was piled into a long causeway later named the Su Causeway (苏堤); he wrote that he could not tell whether Hangzhou's West Lake or Yingzhou's was finer.

From the end of the Song the Yellow River (黄河) began to invade the Ying River and the lake shrank. Ming records describe it as ten li long and three li wide. The 1938 breach of the Yellow River dykes at Huayuankou (花园口) buried what was left under silt. In 1988 the Fuyang government decided to rebuild the lake a few kilometres from the old site, which is now occupied by Fuyang Ecological Park (阜阳生态乐园).

Today the lake is ringed by 11.5 kilometres of shore, with a water surface of about 5.74 square kilometres, and depths of 1 to 2 metres. It is a provincial scenic area, a provincial nature reserve set up in 2002, a national wetland park and a national AAAA tourist attraction. By 2024 the first 3.4-square-kilometre phase of the south lake was finished, and the overall plan includes an 11-kilometre main road around the lake.

What to look for

• The south lake (南湖), the first 3.4-square-kilometre phase of the rebuilt lake
• The South Gate, a symmetrical city-wall-style building on Xihu Avenue (西湖大道)
• Wetland of the national wetland park, listed at 666 hectares
• Huilao Hall (会老堂), Ouyang Xiu's former residence at the old lake site in Fuyang Ecological Park, with four Ming and Qing stelae on rebuilding the lake and its shrines
• Wenzhong Hall and Wenzhong Pavilion (文忠殿, 文忠阁) in the same park, the pavilion 40.5 metres tall, named for the posthumous title shared by Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi

Location & getting there

Getting to Yingzhou West Lake

• Search for 颍州西湖 with 阜阳市 and 颍州区.