On the ninth day of our Century Legend Yangtze River cruise, Rosa and I disembarked at Nanjing, where a comfortable tour bus awaited to take us to Yangzhou — a city long celebrated in Chinese history for its elegance, poetry, and the beauty of its women. The destination for our day trip was the famed Slender West Lake, a place I had always wanted to visit, not only for its scenery but also for its rich cultural past.
The history of Slender West Lake stretches back to the Qing dynasty, when wealthy salt merchants in Yangzhou poured their fortunes into garden-building. Inspired by the great West Lake of Hangzhou, they created a long and narrow waterway lined with pavilions, towers, and elegant bridges. Unlike Hangzhou’s expansive, open lake with broad horizons and sweeping waves, Slender West Lake charms visitors with its intimacy. It is like comparing a noble, stately lady to a slender, gentle young girl — each beautiful in her own way, but with entirely different temperaments.
As we walked along the lake path, I immediately understood why poets had fallen in love with this place. The lake unfolded in a graceful, ribbon-like curve, its shores adorned with willow trees whose branches dipped lightly into the water like soft green silk. White stone bridges arched across narrow reaches of the lake, their reflections forming perfect circles on the still surface.
We passed the Five Pavilion Bridge, perhaps the most iconic view of Slender West Lake. With its yellow-tiled roofs and five archways, it looked like a floating palace. A soft breeze rippled through the lake, carrying the fragrance of flower gardens nearby. In the distance, the delicate silhouette of the White Pagoda rose above the treetops, its reflection shimmering like a faint ink stroke in a traditional Chinese painting.
Rosa stood quietly for a moment, taking in the scenery. “It feels so peaceful,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. I nodded. Yangzhou’s beauty has always been described as gentle rather than dramatic, refined rather than overwhelming — a place where poets, painters, and scholars came to find calmness.
Local lore often says that Yangzhou is home to some of the most beautiful women in China. As I gazed at the soft landscape around us, I understood why. The environment itself is like a poem — graceful, subtle, nurturing. Living in such surroundings, it seems only natural that beauty, both inner and outer, would flourish.
As we walked towards the slender curve of the lake, I felt a sense of serenity rarely found in modern travel. Slender West Lake may not have the vast grandeur of Hangzhou’s West Lake, but its charm lies in being intimate, refined, and quietly captivating. In this gentle waterway, Rosa and I found a rare moment of stillness — a memory that will remain one of the most graceful chapters of our Yangtze River journey.