Mochou Lake

Mochou Lake, 莫愁湖 in Chinese, is located outside the Shuixi Gate in Nanjing. Wish a circumference of five kilometers and a total area of 49 hectaresm, this lake is large and charming in Nanjing. A saying goes that during the Southern Qi Dynasty (479-502 AD), Mo Chou, a young girl from Luoyang, married a young man of the rich Lu family in Nanjing. They lived by a lake. Later the lake was named after her. It was known in earlier times as the "No.1 Lake in Nanjing”. During the QingDynasty, people considered it the"No.1 Scene of Jinling”. It was opened in 1929 as a public park. Inside is the Chess Pavilion, where, it is said, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and his general Xu Da used to play chess. One day the emperor lost. He gave the lake to Xu Da in recognition of his victory. Nearby are the Yujin Hall and the Mid-LakePavilion.