Xiaoyao Jin is a city park occupying an area of about 200,000 square meters, 1/3 of which is water. And the whole park is divided into two parts, the east part and the west part. Xiaoyao Jin was a ferry crossing on Feishui River in ancient times. Outside the park, there are two bridges named Xijin Bridge and Xiaoyao Bridge which are Hefei’s main arteries of traffic to outside world.
The most remarkable characteristics of Xiaoyao Jin Park is that inside the park there is a lake, the surface area of which is 168 mu (mu is the area unit in China, 1 mu is about 667 square meters) and is almost 40 percent of the whole area of the park. The simple and unsophisticated Xiaoyao Fazenda shows its delicate and charming scenery and its color with the elaborate but primitively simple waterside pavilion, the flowery windows with red pillars and green roof tiles, and the intoxicant moonlight on the pool. There are three islands in the lake, among which the north island is the biggest while the south island is the smallest.
The name of Xiaoyao Jin has a long history and is well-known as the ancient battlefield of the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu. At that time, Cao Cao in the state of Wei fought hard against Sun Quan in the state of Wu for 32 years to get Hefei, during which the most famous battle happened on the bank of the ancient Xiaoyao Jin. This story was developed to be the legend of “Zhang Liao overawed Xiaoyao Jin” in the famous classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. And until now there is a small mound of earth which is said to be the tomb for Zhang Liao’s hats and clothes on the three islands which locates in the center of the Xiaoyao Lake.
The Xiaoyao Jin Park is evergreen in four seasons and has elegant and quiet environment, secluded and circuitous winding roads, and craggy and vivid rockeries and artificial stones. The asymmetric layout of the park makes it well-bedded and bi-leveled. The park has the primitive simplicity and elegance of parks of northern China and the charm and comeliness of parks of southern China. Xiaoyao Jin Park enjoys a long history, and the natural scenery and artificial architecture there will make Tourists feel carefree and joyous and enjoy themselves so much as to forget to go home. Tourists can both imagine the diffuse smoke in the ancient battlefields and appreciate the splendid scenery of the mountains and rivers in China.
