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Explore the region
About Tianmu Lake
The broad water and cultivated slopes provide the principal setting for a lakeside visit.
Nanshan Bamboo Sea lies farther south and offers a separate landscape of dense bamboo and streams, with a Bamboo Culture Park interpreting the plant’s cultural uses. Choose a specific lake visitor area first, then add the bamboo destination only with a planned road connection. The two places are not one continuous walking circuit.
Tianmu Lake is formally the Shahe Reservoir (沙河水库) in the Daixi River (戴溪河) basin south of Liyang, built in 1961. The project followed floods on the Shahe River in 1954 and 1957 that destroyed dozens of villages and tens of thousands of mu of farmland; construction began in September 1958, and the reservoir's three dams had taken shape by the spring of 1959. It has a normal capacity of 49 million cubic meters, a catchment area of 148.5 square kilometers, and an elevation of 21 meters.
In 2006 the reservoir underwent China's first ecological dredging project carried out at a drinking-water reservoir, completed in two phases by 2008. In 2010 Tianmu Lake published its first full analysis of 109 water-quality indicators for the drinking source, all of which met the national Grade II surface-water standard.
What to look for
- The reservoir and surrounding tea-growing hills create the main lakeside landscape.
- Nanshan Bamboo Sea offers a separate bamboo-and-stream environment south of the lake.
Background & history
Tianmu Lake (Chinese: 天目湖; pinyin: Tiānmù Hú) is a lake which is 8 km (5.0 mi) south of Liyang City in Jiangsu Province, China. The lake covers an area of 300 km2 (120 sq mi), and its depth ranges from an average of 10 feet (3.0 m) to a maximum of 28 feet (8.5 m). The lake enjoys a legal conservation status, and since the municipal government took action in 1995 to overhaul the sewage disposal systems around the lake, the water quality has been in a good condition, achieving the second highest rating for water quality. As such, the lake is home to many freshwater fish such as cod.
Excerpt from Wikipedia: Tianmu Lake · Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected introductory sentences; formatting simplified. Background information, not current visitor-service advice.
Location & getting there
Getting to Tianmu Lake
Travel to the Tianmu Lake visitor area south of Liyang. If continuing to Nanshan Bamboo Sea, arrange the separate onward and return road journeys.
Combine your visit
A suggested sequence linking the specific features of this visit.
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Tianmu Lake waterfront
Begin with the reservoir and surrounding hill views.
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Nanshan Bamboo Sea
Compare the open-water landscape with bamboo woodland after a planned transfer.
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Bamboo Culture Park
Add interpretation of bamboo’s uses within the southern scenic area.
This order is editorial. Confirm access and any transfers between stops; it does not establish a walking route, same-day connection or common admission ticket.
Find Tianmu Lake
天目湖 · 常州市
The pin marks the area, not the entrance.
More places nearby
Approximate straight-line distances between map pins, not travel distances.
Grand Buddha at Ling Shan 灵山大佛
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View guide →Sources & visit information
The linked encyclopedia sources support background and place descriptions. Current opening hours, ticket prices, booking rules and transport schedules have not been independently verified for this guide. Confirm them with the venue or operator before travelling.
Visitor information adapted and edited from Wikipedia contributors, “Tianmu Lake” · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 1366775131.
Background paragraphs translated and condensed from Wikipedia contributors, "天目湖", Chinese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision 88715116.