East Lake (Donghu)

East Lake (Donghu) is the largest urban lake in any major Chinese city — 33 square kilometres, roughly five times the area of West Lake in Hangzhou. The lake has been a Wuhan recreation and retreat destination since the Tang and Song; the modern East Lake Greenway (East Lake Lvdao), completed in stages from 2016, is a continuous 100-kilometre walking and cycling route around the lake's irregular shoreline.

Mao Zedong's East Lake Villa, on the south shore near the Hubei Provincial Museum, was a summer residence used by the Chairman on at least 47 documented stays between 1953 and 1974. The complex is now a museum, with the original 1950s and 1960s interior preserved and a substantive exhibition of Mao's writing and reading-list while resident at the lake.

Moshan Plum Garden, on the south shore peninsula, is the largest single plum-blossom display in central China — over 11,000 plum trees of dozens of varieties, with the late-February through early-March bloom drawing significant photography-tour numbers. The garden's arrangement is classical Chinese-garden style rather than modern landscape design.

The East Lake Greenway sections vary in character: the Yujia Wan section (south shore) is the most cycle-friendly with shaded paths and lakefront tea pavilions; the Tingtao Scenic Area is the most concentrated photographic destination; the Moshan section is the spring-blossom centre. The Wuhan Botanical Garden, on the western lake shore, is a substantive scientific botanical garden with substantial collections of magnolias and southern Chinese flora.