Green
Lake (Cuihu) Park
 The
Green Lake Park, situated at the western
foot of Wuhua Hill, is a scenically beautiful
park inside the city. By the end of the
Yuan Dynasty, it was still a swampy field
for growing vegetables, lotuses and rice,
hence the name "Vegetable Lake".
The water-level of Dianchi Lake was then
so high that it was connected with the Green
Lake. That is why we have the couplet: "Dianchi
Lake spreads five hundred li; the Vegetable
Lake merges with it." As there were
nine mouths of springs beyond the Bamboo
Island in the northeast, the lake was also
called "The Nine-Dragon Pond".
It now covers fifteen hectares of land.
Since 1985, the red-pecked seagulls from
Siberia have been spending the winter months
on Green Lake.
There used to be a scenically
beautiful island at the centre of the lake.
In the year 1382, Mu Ying, the Garrison
Commander, started building the capital
of Yunnan Province in Kunming, and the Green
Lake was enclosed within the brick walls
of the city. A military structure, called
"the Liu (Willows) Barracks",
was built, which was later changed into
a villa for the Mu family. In 1692, Wang
Jiwen, the provincial governor, built the
Biyiting (literally Green Ripples Pavilion),
commonly called Haixinting (a Pavilion in
the Centre of the Lake). Two long banks
divide the Lake into four parts. Embraced
by willow trees along the banks dotted with
a variety of lotuses, with the delightful
contrast between the weeping willows and
the lotuses, the lake offers a scene of
freshness, serenity, and beauty, hence the
graceful name "The Green Lake".
The main attractions include lotuses, fish,
willow trees and pavilions. Ling Shiyi,
a Cantonese in the Qing Dynasty, wrote in
a couplet: Fishes teem in the ten-mu lotus
pond; over half the city poplars and willows
are caressing pavilions." It is a superb
description of the scenery.
The Haixinting Pavilion is at
the centre of the Lake. On the north and
south stand imposingly two octagonal pavilions
with craved beams and painted rafters and
beautiful glazed tiles and elegant eaves.
Inside the Haixinting there are two courtyards,
where all kinds of shows are held throughout
the four seasons: flower shows, lantern
shows, fish shows and picture shows. Flowers
and trees are growing luxuriantly in the
yards. On the west of the pavilion are buildings
for fish-watching. There is a two-storey
pavilion on which hangs a horizontal board
inscribed with four characters meaning "Drunk
in spring in the abode of immortals"
and facing north is a fish-watching pavilion.
The lake, its banks and the pavilions are
wonderfully arranged, and the painted corridor
alongside the lake and the zigzag bridge
are well connected. All the buildings have
yellow and green glazed tile roofs, with
corners seeming to fly and beams and rafters
colourfully painted, typifying Chinese classical
park designs. On the Fish-Watching Pavilion
there is a couplet written by Huang Kuiguang,
a scholar from Fujian in the Qing Dynasty:
"There stands a pavilion that flanks
the lake, taking upon one tenth of its area;
at leisure I'll come to drink alone under
the moon and immediately become one of the
three." The other two refer to the
moon and his own reflection in the pond.
This couplet has been chosen many times
as one of the most famous couplets depicting
landscapes in China.
East of the pavilion there is
a big tree-surrounded garden consisting
of three tiny peninsulas which form a garden
within the garden. In the garden Chinese
flowering crabapple trees bloom like red
clouds, camellias and azalea give off sweet
scent and weeping willows bow gently. On
the lake float small boats presenting a
scene of bursting life.
On the Gourd Island in the southwest,
there are rows of palm trees dotted with
groves of banana herbs, under which is a
carpet of green grass. The Nine-Bend Bridge
zigzags in the lake. Here is an eye-catching
sub-tropical scene for the tourists. On
the northeastern corner is the Bamboo-Groves
Island. Along the banks are bamboos and
azaleas intertwined with vines. Around the
Nine-Dragon Pond is a big garden, where
people enjoy the potted landscape and celebrate
the Spring Festival. On the Children's Playground,
located on the southwestern side of the
lake, the dragon rollicking in the water,
the flying merry-go-round rotating in the
air, and the miniature train rushing round
and round give children fun and make them
laugh.
Every winter, thousands of red-beaked
sea gulls from the north migrate to the
scenically beautiful Green Lake Park. These
sea gulls swooping over the water and scrambling
with one another for crumbs of food, make
the park even more glamorous.
Early in the morning, hundreds
of people, men and women, young and old,
come to the banks of the lake to practise
boxing, jogging, singing, and sword-dancing.
It is full of life everywhere. In the evening,
people come to have a stroll, to enjoy the
scenery, or to chant antiphonal singing,
amidst willows on the lake banks, feeling
carefree and contented.
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