Yuhuatai (Rain Flower Terrace)

Yuhuatai — Rain Flower Terrace — gets its name from the 14th-century legend of a Buddhist monk whose preaching caused flowers to rain from the sky. The hillside became a literary and Buddhist destination in late-imperial Nanjing, known particularly for the small coloured pebbles found in the surrounding ground (Yuhua pebbles, sold polished as decorative stones in shops across the city).

The hillside's modern function is as a Communist Party memorial site. Between 1927 and 1949, the Nationalist government executed an estimated 100,000 Communists, leftists, and political opponents on the south Yuhuatai grounds. The Yuhuatai Martyrs Memorial Park, built in stages from 1950 to 1989, commemorates the executions and includes substantial sculpture, a memorial hall, and a museum of the Republican-era underground Communist movement.

The site is now an officially-designated patriotic-education base, with frequent organised visits from schools, work units, and Party study groups. Visitors are expected to behave with appropriate respect; photography is permitted in most outdoor areas but interior memorial halls have restrictions.

Mochou Lake (Untroubled Lake), on the eastern fringe of Yuhuatai (technically in Jianye), is a classical Nanjing landscape garden with a 6th-century origin, restored repeatedly. The lake is named after a legendary 6th-century young woman; the surrounding park includes a temple, classical pavilions, and a restored opera stage.