Yuantouzhu, or “Turtle Head Isle,” in Wuxi isn’t so much a park as a front-row seat to a daily cosmological drama. It’s a slender peninsula jutting into the vast expanse of Lake Tai, and its sole purpose seems to be to offer the best possible view of the water and the sky.
I arrived in the late afternoon, joining a stream of locals and tourists heading towards the tip. The path wound through groves of cherry trees (bare in winter, but famously spectacular in spring) and past elegant, Republic-era villas. But everyone’s gaze was drawn forward, to where the land ran out.
At the very head, a massive, natural rock formation—the “turtle’s head”—protrudes into the lake. I found a spot on the rocks and waited. Lake Tai stretched to the horizon, a sheet of hammered silver under the pale sun. The famous “Wuxi spirit”—a local beer—could wait; this was a moment for a different kind of spirit.
As the sun began its descent, the performance started. The sky, a blank canvas, began to absorb color. First, a soft wash of lemon yellow, then streaks of tangerine and rose. The clouds, scattered like brushstrokes, caught fire. The lake, perfectly still, became a mirror, doubling the spectacle. All around me, a hush fell. Cameras clicked, but mostly, people just watched. Couples held hands. An old fisherman, who seemed part of the scenery, puffed on a cigarette, his face golden in the light.
The slogan carved on a nearby rock reads, “Embracing Lake Tai at Turtle Head.” And that’s exactly what it feels like. You are enveloped by the sheer scale of it. This isn’t a gentle pond or a slender canal; it’s an inland sea, with its own moods and majesty. When the final sliver of sun dipped below the distant hills, painting the underbellies of the clouds a final, violent purple, a collective sigh seemed to ripple through the crowd.
Walking back in the twilight, the lights of Wuxi city began to sparkle on the far shore. Yuantouzhu had delivered its promise. It provided no ancient temples or elaborate gardens—just the elemental, breathtaking theater of a sunset over a great lake, a simple, profound reminder of nature’s grandeur that needs no ornament.