Shijiu Lake 石臼湖

Hello everyone, and welcome to Shijiu Lake in Nanjing! Today I'll be taking you from north to south along the Lishui stretch of the lake, visiting six spots in turn: the Xiangyang Village Embankment Viewing Platform, the Shijiu Lake Grand Bridge and Water Train, the Xizhao Village Migratory Bird Observation Point, the Yigongqu Lighthouse, the Zhangxu Village Sunset Boardwalk, and Zhujia Ancient Village. Together we'll experience the scenery and the spectacular winter bird migrations that make this one of Jiangnan's great natural lakes.

Before we set off, let me give you a bit of background on Shijiu Lake. This is no ordinary lake — it covers more than 200 square kilometers, larger than the entire urban core of Nanjing. Where does the name come from? Looking down from above, the lake's outline resembles a shi jiu — a stone mortar used in ancient China to pound grain. The Northern Song geographical text Taiping Huanyu Ji recorded that name more than a thousand years ago, and it has stuck ever since. Geologically, the lake is what remains of ancient Danyang Lake after it broke apart — a subsidence lake whose formation dates back roughly 10,000 years to the early Holocene.

Our first stop is the embankment at Xiangyang Village. Look to your right — that long structure spanning the lake is the Shijiu Lake Grand Bridge, 12.6 kilometers from end to end. That's roughly the same distance as Tian'anmen Square to Beijing Capital Airport. Now look more closely: the orange-and-white train crossing the bridge is Nanjing Metro Line S9. Because the bridge deck sits almost level with the water's surface, from a distance the train appears to be running directly across the lake — which is why people call it the "Water Train."

So when does this place most resemble a "Sky Mirror"? Two conditions need to line up: first, a calm day with no wind, so the lake surface is as smooth as a mirror; second, a clear sunny day in summer or autumn, when the blue sky and white clouds reflect with the sharpest contrast. When both conditions are met, standing on this embankment and looking out, it becomes almost impossible to tell where the water ends and the sky begins. The lake replicates the sky in perfect detail — only a faint line of distant hills at the very edge separates one from the other.

Photography tip: To catch the "Water Train" shot, check the Metro S9 timetable in advance to know when trains pass over the bridge — specifically the section between Mingjue Station and Tuanjiewei Station. Try to time the train's crossing with the best light: morning on the east side for front-lit shots, afternoon on the west side for side-lit shots. Note that stopping on the bridge itself is strictly prohibited — all photography must be done from the embankment or designated viewing areas near the bridge approach.

Now let's take a closer look at the bridge itself. The Shijiu Lake Grand Bridge is part of the Ninggaoxin Corridor and opened to traffic in 2015. Do you know why it was built so long? Shijiu Lake is a shallow lake — average depth just over one meter. Picture an enormous, wide-brimmed dish. Because of that, the bridge couldn't be built as a conventional elevated structure with tall piers. It had to run close to the water's surface, and the longer the crossing, the lower the unit cost and the less disturbance to the lakebed ecosystem.

There's something genuinely interesting about how the Water Train illusion works. You saw Line S9 running above ground earlier, right? After it crosses the lake, between Mingjue Station and Shiqiao Station, it goes back into hilly terrain and becomes a standard elevated metro line. Only on this lake section — where the bridge deck is just barely above the water — does the "walking on water" illusion appear. The physics behind it is simple: when a moving object sits at or below the observer's eye-level horizon, the water surface in the distance swallows every reference point and leaves only the train and its reflection. The object appears to float. Strictly speaking, famous "water railways" around the world work on the same principle — Japan's Kyoto Tantetsu line, Germany's Schleswig-Holstein ferry crossing — the difference is those run real trains, while ours runs a metro.

One more thing worth mentioning: the bridge is infrastructure by day and a viewing platform by night. After the sun goes down completely, a row of warm amber lights comes on along the bridge deck — a string of golden beads stretched across the dark lake. Coming out here in the evening to feel the lake breeze is a completely different experience from the daytime visit.

We've arrived at the Xizhao Village bird observation point — the most important migratory bird site along the Lishui stretch of Shijiu Lake. Why do migratory birds flock to Shijiu Lake? Three reasons. First, the lake lies along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway — one of nine major bird migration routes in the world, used by more than 50 million birds every year. Think of it as the birds' international highway. Second, Shijiu Lake is shallow and flat-bottomed, with abundant aquatic vegetation, especially the root-bearing water plants that tundra swans love to feed on. Third, since 2016, Lishui has established wetland conservation zones along the shore, with core protection areas where fishing and human disturbance are prohibited.

November through February is prime birdwatching season. According to the latest 2026 survey data from Jiangsu Province, 5,382 tundra swans were recorded in the Lishui Shijiu Lake wetland — the highest count in three years. Look out toward the center of the lake — those white shapes are the swans. Beyond the swans, at this time of year you may also spot Oriental storks, black-faced spoonbills, and hooded cranes — all three are Class I protected species in China. Oriental storks are hard to miss: they stand nearly 1.2 meters tall with bold black-and-white plumage. Black-faced spoonbills have a distinctive flat, spatula-shaped bill — that's your field mark.

Listen — that's the sound of swans calling. The call is not unlike a domestic goose, but lower and more resonant. The swans are most active just after dawn and in the hour before sunset — and the takeoff scenes are extraordinary: hundreds of birds simultaneously splashing across the water to build speed, kicking up sheets of white spray, then rising together and circling the lake two or three times before peeling off toward their feeding grounds.

A few birdwatching tips: Bring your own binoculars. The swans are visible from the shore, but even the closest birds are usually 200 to 300 meters away — without binoculars you'll miss them preening and feeding. And please keep your voice down and don't throw anything into the water. Good birdwatching is built on one idea: an encounter that doesn't disturb.

We've now arrived at Yigongqu. The name sounds industrial — it's a holdover from the old lake management system. Look ahead: that white cylindrical tower is the most famous photo landmark on Shijiu Lake.

Let me tell you about the lighthouse first. This is a fully functional navigation lighthouse, providing positioning for boats working the lake at night — it was built to do a job, not to be photographed. The pure white cylindrical tower capped with a red light, set against the blue of the lake and sky, is color in its simplest form. Why does it photograph so well? One word: subtraction. Think about what surrounds the tower — water, sky, and distant hills. Nothing else. No power lines, no buildings, no signage. The scene strips itself down to almost nothing, and that radical simplicity is what makes it work. Anyone pointing a phone at it walks away with a shot that feels like "adrift between heaven and earth."

Do you see the tree next to the lighthouse? That lone tree standing on the lakeshore flat, the one people online call "the Lonely Tree." There's debate about the species — some say elm, some say tallow tree — but the species isn't really the point. The point is why there's only one. The lake's rising and falling water levels repeatedly drowned nearby seedlings over the years. Only this one, rooted on a slightly higher patch of ground, survived. One lonely tree beside one lonely lighthouse, reflected in one silent lake — that is probably the essential aesthetic of Shijiu Lake.

Best time to shoot: Sunrise. The sun climbs from behind the hills to the east of the lake, and the lighthouse and tree are reduced to crisp black silhouettes against the glowing sky, the water below turning entirely gold. That image belongs only to people willing to get up early. In the daytime you can combine the lighthouse with the Sky Mirror effect; in winter during the dry season, cracked lakebed patterns and exposed grass flats appear in the foreground and add a layer of depth to the composition.

We've reached our fifth stop of the day — the Zhangxu Village Sunset Boardwalk. The concrete walkway you see stretching straight out into the lake is a legacy of Shijiu Lake's fishing and flood-control era. It runs about 200 meters, and the square two-story structure at the far end is a watchtower.

Walk the boardwalk first. Underfoot is concrete warmed by the sun; on either side, the lake extends as far as you can see. The deck sits very close to the water — in the high-water season it nearly grazes the surface, and from a distance it looks as if you're walking on the lake itself. That feeling of being in the water, rather than beside it, is something completely different from what you experienced on the embankment at Xiangyang Village. The embankment is observation; the boardwalk is immersion.

Climb to the top of the watchtower and look around: open lake straight ahead, the faint outline of the Shijiu Lake Grand Bridge to the left, wetlands and farmland to the right. The reason this is the second-to-last stop on our route is simple: this is the widely agreed best place on all of Shijiu Lake to watch the sunset.

The golden window runs from about 30 minutes before sunset to 15 minutes after. Here's what happens: the sun descends slowly behind the western ridge, and the sky cycles through its colors — pale blue, then soft yellow, then deep gold, then burnt orange, then dusty violet — as if someone is pouring paint across the sky one color at a time. The lake mirrors every shift below, so you're looking at two skies at once. Backlit by the setting sun, the boardwalk and watchtower become pure silhouette. If you take a photo in that moment, the frame holds exactly three things: golden sky, golden water, and a black boardwalk cutout — the classic "lake of molten gold, sky dyed crimson" shot Shijiu Lake is known for.

One tip: don't rush off when the sun disappears. About 20 minutes after sunset, the sky enters what photographers call the "blue hour" — deep blue overhead, a last trace of rose along the horizon, the lake shifting from gold to a quiet dark blue, and the red navigation light of the distant lighthouse blinking on. That is the most peaceful, most quietly beautiful moment Shijiu Lake offers in an entire day.

That brings us to the end of today's route through the Lishui stretch of Shijiu Lake. We traveled from north to south, connecting six spots that each have their own character: the "Sky Mirror" and Water Train at the Xiangyang Village Embankment, the swans and migratory birds at Xizhao Village, the lighthouse and lone tree at Yigongqu, the sunset boardwalk at Zhangxu Village, and the ancestral hall and ancient lanes of Zhujia Village. What makes this route genuinely special is that Shijiu Lake isn't somewhere you "tour" in the conventional sense — there are no ticketed gates, no fences, no set itinerary. It's an enormous, breathing mirror. Whatever season you come, whatever the weather, whatever time of day — the lake gives you a different face. Wildflowers and birdsong in spring. Shimmering heat haze in summer. Silver reed plumes in autumn. The calls of thousands of wintering birds drifting across the water in winter. We hope to see you back again — and a different Shijiu Lake waiting for you when you return.