Qiandao Lake · Zhejiang
Qiandao Lake is a 1,078-island reservoir in Chun'an, Zhejiang — China's cleanest big-lake water, a ¥150 through-ticket, ¥45 cruise boats and the biggest organic fish head you will ever be served.
The short version
The place itself
Qiandao Lake is not a natural lake and it is not old. It is a reservoir, fifty-odd years on the map, created when a dam was put across the Xin'an River and the hills behind it became islands — 1,078 of them at the current count. The county town of Chun'an moved in 1959 when the water rose, and two older cities, He Cheng and Shicheng, went under with their eight gate towers and eighteen centuries of history still standing on the bottom.
What it became instead is the cleanest large body of water in the country. That is not a boast — it is the reason a bottled-water company built its brand on it. The lake sits on the Hangzhou–Qiandao Lake–Huangshan corridor, 129 km from Hangzhou and about 150 from Huangshan, and it works either as a two-day stop of its own or as the middle of that route.
The islands themselves are a mixed bag and it is worth being honest about it: most of the developed ones carry recent attractions — snake islands, monkey islands, lock islands, a floating bridge with a hundred-pound carp under it. The reason to come is not any single island. It is being on the water among a thousand of them, and then eating.
Two days is the right shape. One day on the boats through the central or southeast zone, one day for the edges — the forest oxygen bar, Qiuchuan village with its seventy per cent Ming and Qing Huizhou houses, a raft run if it is summer, or the 185 km cycle loop if you ride. Come in autumn for clarity, or in winter for empty water at winter prices.
Pins are plotted from real latitude and longitude on a 5° graticule. This is a schematic orientation diagram, not a political map — no boundaries are drawn.
'Without climbing Meifeng you have not seen the real Qiandao Lake.' The island sits on the Scholar Peninsula at the west end of the central zone, named because five linked hills make the shape of a plum blossom, and from the viewing platform you look out over more than 300 islands. Autumn gives the best visibility. Cable car ¥25 up, ¥20 down, ¥40 return.
The standard morning run goes Meifeng — Yule Island — Longshan Island — Moonlight Island, or in the afternoon Moonlight — Longshan — Shenlong. On Moonlight Island, four islets are stitched together by the Yule, Lucky and Zhuangyuan floating bridges; the Lucky Bridge is the longest water-borne pontoon in the country and the fish-watching bridge has carp over a hundred jin, one of them nicknamed the White Lady.
Longshan has been a noted place in western Zhejiang since long before the reservoir — the local rhyme pairs Iron Well, Little Gold Hill and the Stone Gorge Academy with 'living Longshan'. The island carries the Hai Rui shrine, the Stone Gorge Academy, the Half-Acre Pond and a bell tower, and in the shrine is Hai Rui's own calligraphy: a single character for longevity built out of the characters for birth, mother, seven and ten, which reads the same upside down.
Qiandao Lake is one of China's four big freshwater-fish bases and the first national organic-fish farm. The dish is the fish head — braised or in soup, priced by size, the broth slick and rich and full of aromatics. A small tureen of thick soup runs ¥368 at a resort restaurant and feeds five; a village farmhouse will do a whole bighead at ¥28 a jin.
In Langchuan township, on the water, with about seventy per cent of its buildings Ming and Qing Huizhou houses — carved beams, painted rafters, and the waterside pavilions and fish pools that most village houses do not have. A clear stream runs through the middle and the houses line it in the shape of the character for 'king', which is apt, since ninety-five per cent of the villagers are named Wang. Free to enter, farmhouse beds ¥50–60 a day.
The lake claims the widest range of water sports in the country — para-sailing, jet skis, aqua bikes, speedboat rides, diving, all based at Wenxin Island. On land, the Qiandao Lake cycle route is 185 km of quiet inlets, long grinding climbs and old villages, running from the tourism pier out along the Chunyang and Qianfen roads and back over the Qiandao Lake bridge.
There is no airport at the lake. Hangzhou Xiaoshan (HGH) is the usual arrival and there are three ways on from it: airport bus to the railway station ¥20, then bus 49 to the West coach station ¥2, then the coach to Qiandao Lake ¥43; a taxi straight to the West coach station for about ¥180 and the same ¥43 coach; or a chartered seven- or nine-seat business van all the way to the lake for ¥1,300, all-in including tolls, parking and the driver. The coach is the ordinary choice and it is simple: Hangzhou West station to Qiandao Lake long-distance station, every 30 minutes from 06:00 to 18:50, about two hours, ¥60, with returns 05:20–18:20. Shanghai's south long-distance station runs three departures a day at 08:00, 09:00 and 14:20 for about ¥100, returning at 07:45, 13:50 and 14:30 for about ¥122. From Huangshan, a blue New National Line coach leaves the scenic area at 06:30 and reaches the Qiandao Lake tourism pier at 09:40, returning at 14:30.
Note that the Qiandao Lake railway station is not at the lake at all — it is at Maozhuyuan in neighbouring Jiande, with two trains a day to Jinhua and Yiwu, and boat connections from Xiyuan pier at 06:30, 08:50, 10:30 and 14:00. Nearly everyone takes the train to Hangzhou instead and coaches from there. Once at the lake, the town runs nine bus routes at ¥1, including K004 direct to the new tourism pier, 06:00–22:00 every 10–15 minutes. Taxis are the cheapest in China: ¥2 a head on the main roads, ¥2 more for a detour through the lanes, ¥5 to start the meter for anywhere further, so four people can hire a whole taxi for ¥8. Drivers should know the pier car park charges ¥4 an hour for a car and ¥5 for a large vehicle, while hotels park you free, and that the speed cameras on the Qiandao Lake spur are strict.
| Month | Weather | Crowds | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 12°C / 4°C · cool, damp | Quiet | Good |
| February | 14°C / 6°C · cool, damp | Very busy | Good |
| March | 18°C / 10°C · clear and mild | Moderate | Best |
| April | 24°C / 16°C · clear and mild | Moderate | Best |
| May | 28°C / 21°C · cool, damp | Busy | OK |
| June | 32°C / 25°C · very hot, humid | Moderate | OK |
| July | 35°C / 28°C · cool, damp | Busy | Avoid |
| August | 34°C / 27°C · cool, damp | Busy | Avoid |
| September | 29°C / 23°C · very hot, humid | Moderate | OK |
| October | 24°C / 17°C · clear and mild | Very busy | Best |
| November | 18°C / 11°C · clear and mild | Quiet | Best |
| December | 13°C / 6°C · cool, damp | Quiet | Good |
Two days, which is exactly what the source guide plans for. Day one is the lake: the central-zone cruise through Meifeng, Moonlight and Longshan, or the southeast-zone run to Huangshanjian, Tianchi and Mishan. Day two is the edges — Qiuchuan village and the forest oxygen bar, or Longchuan Bay, or a raft run. One day does work if you take the 'essence' route and accept that you are seeing the lake rather than the county. A third day buys the outer sights properly: the stone forest, Jiupaojie's nine waterfalls, or a long stretch of the cycle loop.
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September to November, when the average temperature is 12–18°C, the rain is at its lowest and the visibility from Meifeng is best — you can count more than 300 islands from the platform. April and May are also good but wetter, so bring rain gear. Winter is underrated: the water is at its most transparent, there are no crowds, and a standard room drops to ¥50–60, roughly two-thirds below the high season.
It is a through-ticket: ¥150 from 1 March to 30 November, ¥120 from 1 December to the end of February, students half price, and it gets you into any island in any lake zone — but not the outlying sights such as the stone forest, the forest oxygen bar or Longchuan Bay, which charge separately. If you want to use it across two days, you must register with the scenic-area staff before your first trip out and pay a ¥10 per-person handling fee.
Since 2012 the boats have run on a bus-style timetable, which is why anything you read dated earlier is probably wrong. A luxury boat is ¥45 a head and ¥25 for children 1.2–1.5 m. Central-zone departures are 08:00–09:00 and 10:00–10:40 in the morning and 12:00–13:00 in the afternoon; the southeast zone leaves at 08:40, 09:20, 10:00, 11:00 and 13:00. Private charter is ¥150 a head on a luxury yacht based on six people, ¥2,500 a trip for a leisure yacht, or ¥1,350 for a whole boat based on thirty.
By coach from Hangzhou West station — every 30 minutes from 06:00 to 18:50, about two hours, ¥60, arriving at Qiandao Lake long-distance station. From the airport, take the airport bus to the railway station (¥20), bus 49 to the West coach station (¥2) and the coach (¥43); a taxi to the coach station is about ¥180. Driving is 129 km by the Hangxinjing expressway and its Qiandao Lake spur, about 90 minutes. Do not book the Qiandao Lake railway station — it is in Jiande, not at the lake.
The fish head, without argument — braised or in soup, priced by size, the broth slick and rich. Then wild bamboo-shoot stew with fish head, eight-treasure fish head, steamed mandarin fish, clear-soup fish balls, wild boar ribs in pepper salt and silver-fish soup. Chayuan dried tofu, stamped with the character for Qianlong's reign because he is said to have made it tribute, is sold in every market. Drink the local beer. Avoid eating the organic fish head on the tour boats — have it in town, where the price and the cooking are both better.
Yes, with a caveat. Most developed islands carry recent attractions, and the guide's own tip is that if you are heading on to Huangshan afterwards you can skip the cruise entirely — buy the ¥15 passenger-boat ticket from the pier to Shendu, five hours across the lake, see the same water and get where you were going. What is not skippable is the fish, the water and Qiuchuan village.
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