Get to know Haiyan
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Full frame retained; proportionally resized and converted to WebP. No retouching or changes to the photographed subject. Card displays may crop the view.
- Administrative area
- County · 县
- Part of
- Jiaxing
- Chinese name
- 海盐县
- Local areas
- County guide
Area & population
- Area in the source
- 584.96 km²
- Population · 2020
- 456,775
Source: cited geographic source, as of the dates shown.
Nanbei Lake’s hills and shores
The lake area’s walking routes include Yueshan Xianghai (越山向海) and Xingshan Zouhu (行山走湖), linking hill and water scenery. Beili Lake Wetland (北里湖湿地) has orange groves on raised land. Named scenic features include Butterfly Island (蝴蝶岛), Bailuzhou (白鹭洲) and Jingshanli (荆山里). Qiyuan Scenic Area (绮园景区) is another county destination, where historical-themed cultural activities have been held.
Publishing, comics and local food
Haiyan is associated with publisher Zhang Yuanji (张元济), cartoonist Zhang Leping (张乐平), creator of Sanmao (三毛), and novelist Yu Hua (余华). Its Nanbei Lake cultural tourism festival began in 1996. The festival’s 2022 programme listed lake-area sheep-meat and citrus events, bringing local agricultural products into its cultural activities.
Sources for this guide
海盐人民政府新闻办公室：2022中国长三角·海盐南北湖文化旅游节新闻发布会 · Haiyan County Government News Office
海盐县文化和广电旅游体育局2020年工作总结和2021年工作思路 · Haiyan County Government; Culture and Tourism Bureau
Original English written from the listed sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer. Updated 2026-09-30.
Explore Haiyan
Core places to explore, with English and Chinese names.
Places to explore around Haiyan
Nanbei Lake · 南北湖Nanbei Lake南北湖
Nanbeihu is a pair of lakes divided by a causeway among the hills of Ganpu in southern Haiyan, with higher viewpoints toward Hangzhou Bay.
Read the place guide →
A panoramic view of Qi Garden's pond, pavilion and arched stone bridge, Haiyan · 海盐绮园全景，可见池塘、亭台与石拱桥 Source-recorded photograph date: 2015-03-22 13:13:07.Qiyuan Garden绮园
Feng family garden of the 1870s in Haiyan, Zhejiang, built from two older gardens' rocks, with three rockery hills, two pools and few buildings.
Read the place guide →Plan your visit
Getting there
Haiyan is about 30 km in a straight line from central Jiaxing. Search for 海盐县 in a map app to find stations and your accommodation.
Where to stay →Build your route
Nanbei Lake and Qiyuan Garden are both listed here. The linked place guides have entrance and visit details.
Continue with Jiaxing →More in Jiaxing
Sources & geographic information
Administrative names and parent areas: Official geographic directory · Reference date 2026-09-06.
Photo: Nanbei Lake · Source photographer · License not provided. EXIF orientation normalized; resized without changing aspect ratio; converted to WebP. No subject edits.
Photo: Qiyuan Garden · 猫猫的日记本 · CC BY-SA 4.0. Full frame retained; proportionally resized and converted to WebP. No retouching or changes to the photographed subject. Card displays may crop the view.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Pins mark approximate centres, not entrances or boundaries.