The many lives of East Lake

If you ask someone in Wuhan what East Lake is, the question usually elicits a pause.

Not because people do not know the answer, but because there are too many.

The lake on the eastern side of the provincial capital of Hubei province is one of China’s largest urban lakes, spanning about 33 square kilometers — roughly six times the size of the famed West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. It is home to a 105-kilometer greenway system linking forests, wetlands, hills, villages, and lakeside parks.

The greenway project has collected an impressive list of awards, including the China Construction Engineering Luban Prize, one of the country’s top honors in construction projects.

Poets once wandered here. Mao Zedong stayed here dozens of times. Chinese military leader Zhu De predicted that East Lake would one day surpass West Lake. The lake has won international urban-planning awards. On major holidays, it has never failed to pack in residents and travelers alike.

However, no answer can fully articulate what it’s like to encounter a lake of this scale. You arrive and do not know where to begin. The lake exceeds the frame of a camera lens.

By late spring, the cherry blossoms around East Lake are long gone, but the crowds remain.

The asphalt along the greenway is damp from morning dew. Cyclists wobble past on rented bicycles. Young parents push strollers slowly along the lakeside. Some people simply sit on benches facing the water, lost in reverie.

The greenway loops through seven themed sections, forming a continuous ring around large sections of the lake. Along the way are wetlands, restored shorelines, cedar groves, Chu-style pavilions, village roads, and newly opened hiking trails threading through the surrounding hills.