Take a Snail on a Trip: Fun Study Time at East Taihu Lake

Bordering East Taihu Lake and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Wujiang in Suzhou is crisscrossed by waterways. Its unique location and deep history have nurtured Jiangnan water town culture, millennia-old canal culture, and silkworm-silk traditions, earning it the names 'land of fish and rice' and 'home of silk'.

With the conservation and development of East Taihu Lake eco-tourism and the opening of the Suzhou metro, the once-hidden East Taihu Lake Resort has become a new travel hotspot. Here, the natural lakeside scenery, the thousand-year-old Lougang waterway culture, and rustic rural life reveal the charm of a new 'land of fish and rice' and a new Jiangnan culture, making it Suzhou's last authentic water town.

In early winter, East Taihu Lake Resort is picture-perfect. Following the 24.4-kilometer shoreline southwards, 60 square kilometers of the vast lake unfold before your eyes. The resort hums with birdsong and insects, lush greenery everywhere, the air fresh and lung-cleansing—a winter tableau of tranquility and vitality along Taihu's shores.

Take a snail on a trip: our destination this stop is Home Inn Town and Taihu Oasis within East Taihu Lake Resort. Come, follow our footsteps and let's travel together.

Morning: Pick oranges, strawberries, and fragrant green cabbage at Taihu Oasis

Lunch: Wildfire rice + BBQ

Afternoon: Check in at Home Inn Town, then try golf, archery, and kayaking at the sports center

Next morning: Breakfast at Sanwei Wild Kitchen + a lakeside bike ride

Late morning: Handicraft experiences at the Countryside Club (leatherwork, woodworking, pottery)

Lunch: Sanwei Wild Kitchen

Afternoon: Fun Center and non-powered playground at Home Inn Town

Finally: Visit Taihu Academy, then head home

—Let life return to the countryside

For little Huihui, stepping outside is always a joy. Every little thing in the fields is a novelty—farming, country living, rustic food, rural knowledge. Let life go back to the garden. Entering Taihu Oasis Scenic Area, you see rippling lake waters, reed flowers dancing, and rich flora and fauna in the Taihu Wetland Experience Zone. It's the Peach Blossom Land you dream of, a true countryside oasis.

Happy Village is the heart of the Taihu Oasis. Drive straight there with your GPS—it's like a real-life "Happy Farm," where you can taste authentic rural life and enjoy the fun of planting and picking.

Catch the last call for oranges

Remember the year's finest sights? It's when oranges turn golden and tangerines blush red. Along East Taihu in autumn and winter, oranges have their moment. Arriving at Happy Village, we first head to the orchard to pick citrus. The best picking season runs from late October to mid-December. Today, we caught the very last call for oranges.

At the orchard entrance, passing visitors crowd around to buy freshly picked tangerines—Wujiang Wanping citrus is quite famous.

Carrying baskets into the orange grove, golden fruit loads the branches. A crisp, refreshing citrus fragrance fills the air. One careless step and you tumble into the poetic countryside of the water town. The orange orchard is huge; freshly picked fruit piles up like hills. It's another harvest season, with farmers still busy picking among the trees.

Little Huihui imitates everyone, darting through the grove to find his favorite fruit. The orange trees aren't tall; their branches bend low under the heavy fruit, many almost touching the ground, so kids can easily pick them.

The just-picked oranges are fresh, plump, seedless, thin-skinned, and bursting with juice—sweet and delicious. They say the soluble solids are high too, thanks to the unique microclimate of Taihu Lake.

Free-range chickens, ducks, and geese roam the orchard. Word has it you can even catch one to take home.

Sweet "berry" time in winter

After citrus, the first bucket of winter strawberries can't be missed. Head to the strawberry garden for strawberry freedom. At Taihu Oasis Strawberry Base, dozens of greenhouses stretch out, with rows of lush strawberry plants laden with fresh berries.

Little Huihui carries a small basket into the greenhouse. The strawberries, larger than a palm, are so tender and luscious. It doesn't take long to fill his basket. The sweet-and-sour fresh strawberries light up his face with joy.

Green Vegetable Garden: Wujiang Fragrant Green Cabbage

If you go three days without greens, your eyes will see stars. Early winter is the season for fragrant green cabbage, especially after a frost, when it turns soft, glutinous, and delicately fragrant.

Its serrated leaf edges resemble a skirt flounce, just like the lace embroidered by Jiangnan seamstresses, so locals also call it "embroidered lace." When stir-fried, it's both sticky and aromatic, hence the name "fragrant green cabbage." Its unique taste ties to the special local soil, known as "night tide mud"—a soft, acidic, and fertile soil that releases nutrients quickly. Nurtured by Taihu Lake water, it gives the cabbage its distinctive fragrance.

Grab a hoe and head to the fun farming vegetable area to pick your own fragrant green cabbage and enjoy a little sweat. The garden is filled with whimsical straw-made cartoon figures and hot-air balloons, adding a touch of childlike delight.

After harvesting fresh cabbage, it's noon. Little Huihui's stomach starts rumbling. Back at the wisteria corridor in Happy Village, today's lunch is a wildfire rice feast cooked right here.

Wash the freshly picked cabbage and set aside. Start making the wildfire rice: take two jin of japonica rice and one jin of glutinous rice, rinse and soak. Fry salted pork to release its fat, then stir it into the rice. Dice the best parboiled salted pork, toss it in, add water and salt, cover, and simmer.

When it's eighty percent done, add the fragrant green cabbage and lard, stir, and the fragrance—the cabbage's freshness, the salted pork's savory aroma, and the lard's richness—elevates the rice to another level. One bite and you'll say, "Life is worthwhile."

Fresh fragrant green cabbage grilled is also something special. Besides the wildfire rice, an outdoor BBQ rounds out this lunch perfectly.

After the meal, visit the high-tech intelligent agricultural greenhouse that combines education and fun. There you'll see many tropical plants and modern farming techniques—a natural classroom for study tours.

—It's not that Club Med isn't fun, it's just that East Taihu is better value

After a short rest at Taihu Oasis, head to Home Inn Town, right next door. This is our accommodation. Home Inn Town stands out for its "unique accommodations," offering creative choices like containers, wooden cabins, RVs, tents, and stargazing rooms.

This time we chose the Guanlan Lakeside box-style camp. Eight membrane-structure container holiday homes line Guanlan Lake. Their white roof membranes look like egrets spreading their wings to fly. The guest rooms, converted from containers, are stacked and connected. Small but fully equipped, each has a large floor-to-ceiling window with a sweeping lake view.

Beyond rural scenery, the biggest draw of Home Inn Town is the Countryside Club. There's a fully inclusive independent camp package where kids join in the whole way. Led by HO (holiday organizers), the children can enjoy a variety of recreational sports and handicraft activities, gaining new skills and interests while having fun.

After check-in, follow the HO coach to the outdoor sports center. First stop: archery fun.

Right next to it is a golf driving range.

Finally, as the evening glow fills the sky, paddle a kayak and drift across Guanlan Lake.

The next day, woken by birdsong and insects, take a lakeside bike ride to encounter late-autumn-early-winter beauty. For a longer ride, join the coaches for a cycle around Taihu Lake—the redwoods along the shore are already deeply colored.

After breakfast, go to the Fun Center at the Countryside Club. The HOs are already waiting. The center sits by Guanlan Lake, made of 16 containers.

The ground floor is a tea lounge. After sending the kids to the independent camp, adults can brew tea by the stove, do yoga, or sip tea and enjoy their own quiet time.

Upstairs, there's a wide range of indoor activities. Professional HOs guide pottery, woodworking, leathercraft, tie-dye, bookmark-making, and many other hands-on courses.

In the pottery area, settle your mind and spend two hours making a cute mug with your own hands.

At the woodworking center, get to know a variety of tools and make a playful wooden dragonfly.

In the leathercraft zone, craft an adorable leather bell.

Inside the Manyou Fun Park, there's an ocean ball pit and slide area, a LEGO zone, and a picture book reading corner. Kids of every age can find their own joy.

At the non-powered playground, build sandcastles, swing on swings—long-suppressed nature is instantly set free.

Sanwei Wild Kitchen Restaurant

All three meals can be had at Sanwei Restaurant. The dark gray building is serene and stylish. Large windows let in sunlight and offer broad views. Specialties include Taihu aquatic products and Su-style farmhouse dishes. Fresh ingredients and unique flavors always open the appetite for a feast.

The space is quite large, with private dining rooms and a multi-function hall, suitable for family gatherings or company team building.

—Immerse yourself in East Taihu's Jiangnan cultural heritage

East Taihu boasts not only sweeping natural scenery but also rich Jiangnan cultural heritage. The refined legacies of Fei Xiaotong, Nan Huaijin, Liu Yazi and others are all here waiting to be discovered. For our last stop, we made a reservation to visit Taihu Academy, founded by Master Nan Huaijin.

Nan Huaijin, the great sinologist, was first drawn by the beauty of East Taihu's shores and came up with the idea of building a lecture hall here. This place became his temporary residence and teaching spot in his later years.

Xiangfa Hall faces Taihu Lake, tranquil and solemn. Moored at the dock is a five-masted sailing boat from the Guangxu era. The redwood forest along the shore is now ablaze with color. This tree-lined path is also called Nangong Causeway. Taihu Academy (Nan Huaijin's former residence) is now a protected cultural site of Suzhou.

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