석혜 명승구

The Xihui Scenic Area is the historic core of Wuxi's Xihui park complex, spreading across the foothills of Huishan and Xishan on the city's western edge and containing several of Wuxi's most important individual sights within a single walkable landscape. Although the broader Xihui park was reorganized into the 5A-rated Huishan Ancient Town complex, the Xihui Scenic Area itself remains the most historically dense section of the grounds, and it is where most of the headline landmarks are concentrated.

The area's centerpiece is Jichang Garden, one of the finest surviving classical Jiangnan gardens in Wuxi. First laid out in the Ming dynasty, the garden uses a sophisticated design that borrows the scenery of the neighboring hills and the famous Second Spring, drawing spring water into its ponds and courtyards, and framing the distant Longguang Pagoda on Xishan as a deliberate backdrop. Its historical reputation was such that the Qing-dynasty emperors Kangxi and Qianlong both visited and left calligraphy, and the garden remains one of the clearest illustrations of how elite Jiangnan families designed private retreats to blend nature, architecture, and philosophy.

Beyond the garden, the area holds Huishan Temple, founded in the Northern and Southern dynasties period, whose ancient trees, stone inscriptions, and historical associations include the Tang-dynasty poem "Min Nong" by Li Shen, one of the most widely memorized poems in Chinese literature. Nearby stands the Second Spring Under Heaven, a celebrated spring ranked second among China's tea-brewing waters by the Tang-dynasty tea scholar Lu Yu, and immortalized in the erhu masterpiece "Erquan Yingyue" ("The Moon Reflected in the Second Spring") by the blind folk musician Abing. The Xishan hilltop pagoda, the Nine Dragon Wall, and a small amusement area round out the grounds.

A full visit takes half a day or more, especially if combined with the neighboring Huishan Ancient Town just to the north, whose ancestral halls, craft workshops, and clay figurine museum extend the same visit into one of Wuxi's deepest cultural outings. The scenic area's location on the city's western edge makes it one of the most accessible of Wuxi's major attractions from downtown, and it rewards a slow, wandering pace over a fixed route.