Lakes add to park's unique appeal to business investors

In addition to Jinji Lake, two other famous lakes can be found in Suzhou Industrial Park, adding to the park's unique appeal.

Dushu Lake and the Yangcheng Lake have picturesque natural landscapes and play different roles in the functioning of the industrial park.

Dushu Lake

The pronunciation of Dushu is similar to the Mandarin word for "reading". Coincidentally, the lakeside area is renowned for its education and innovation industry.

Dushu Lake Library, which opened in 2005, is the center for most cultural activities in the lake area.

In 2012, the library renovated and developed its 15 community branches in the industrial park.

According to the industrial park, 25 national and foreign institutes have offices in the Dushu Lake area. Among them are the University of Science and Technology of China, Renmin University of China, Nanjing University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the National University of Singapore.

Top academic institutes include the Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics, jointly founded in March 2006 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the local government, the National University Science Park, BioBay, a biological and the nanotechnology park, as well as many other high-tech industry incubators.

The lake area just set up an association of universities earlier this month. Twenty-three universities that have branches or institutions in the area - including Renmin University of China, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and Soochow University - have joined the association. The association will offer students and teachers integrated study resources.

As one of the regular programs at the lake area, the Lakeside Forum features scholars and industry insiders from around the world to discuss major topics in culture, business and politics. The monthly event has been running for nine years and is one of the most popular cultural activities in the lake area.

The world-renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the cradle of major breakthroughs in molecular biology, has partnered with the Industrial Park to set up a conference center near Dushu Lake. The program has initiated a series of international scientific conferences and courses at the lake area since 2010, later becoming the Cold Spring Harbor Asia Conferences. A total of 12 Nobel laureates have given speeches at the conference. What is more impressive is that four of the scholars received Nobel Prizes after attending the conference.

Yangcheng Lake

While Dushu Lake is where people read and learn, Yangcheng Lake is where they can relax and spend their vacations.

Every autumn, gourmets flock to Yangcheng Lake to taste its famous Yangcheng Lake crab.

The extensive transportation system, cluster of accommodation facilities, and famous tourism spots such as Chongyuan Temple and historic site Caoxie Mountain attract many tourists to the lake area every year.

During the crab harvest season, the local market offers the best Yangcheng Lake crabs in the country, and visitors can also enjoy the authentic local cuisine at farm stays.

There is also a bicycle trail along the lake where people can rent a bicycle and go for a ride.

The Yangcheng Lake area has now positioned itself as a destination for leisure activities and is already a leading player in this sector among the surrounding regions.

fuchao@chinadaily.com.cn

Students enjoy a moment of reading in Suzhou Industrial Park.

Ligong Causeway (with pagoda), which crosses Jinji Lake is 1,400 meters long. Photos Provided To China Daily

Chongyuan Temple by Yangcheng Lake has a history of more than 1,000 years.

(China Daily 04/25/2015 page6)