The Shou Xihu, which winds, snake-like, through an elongated park area (daily 6.45am-5.30pm;RMB30), literally translates as “Thin West Lake”- so named to recall the original “fat”West Lake at Hangzhou. In some respects it’s a typical Chinese park, full of water and melancholy weeping willows, though it does also contain an array of interesting structures, follies in the romantic sense: a plain white dagoba, modeled after the one 
in Beihai in Beijing; the Chui i Tai (Happiness Terrace), whose three moon gates each Frame a different scene; and in particular the much-photographed Wuting Qiao (Five Pavilion Bridge), an eighteenth-century construction with massive triple-arched and yellow-tiled roofs. If you walk about fifteen minutes west from the Wuting Qiao, along the north bank of the lake, you’ll also come to another bridge, the spectacular Ershisi Qiao (Twenty-four Bridge), its single hump so high and rounded as to Form a virtual circle through which boats could pass. The bridge is so named because there are 24 archways in the design; the designer wanted his masterpiece to be appreciated 24 hours of the day, and there used to be 24 stone bridges spanning the canals of Yangzhou. Near the bridge is a reproduction of Emperor Qianlong’s fishing platform, today a (avourite spot of photo- taking couples. Legend says that Qianlong’s servants would dive into the canal and hook fish to the emperor’s fishing line so that he, thinking the town had brought him good luck, would allocate its citizens more funding.
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