The Moat That Became a Promenade: Fengcheng River, Taizhou

望海楼头望海去，凤城河畔凤城春 Wànghǎi Lóu tóu wànghǎi qù, Fèngchéng Hé pàn Fèngchéng chūn – From Wanghai Tower one gazes toward the sea; along Fengcheng River, the spring of the Phoenix City

正文：凤城河 Fèngchéng Hé Fengcheng River is Taizhou’s old city moat, kept full, planted and lit – a green loop of water that still circles the historic core of 海陵 Hǎilíng Hailing, the old town the city grew from. Its showpiece is 望海楼 Wànghǎi Lóu Wanghai Tower, the multi-storey pavilion on the east bank that carries the plaque 「江淮第一楼」 Jiānghuái Dì-yī Lóu – “First Tower of the Jianghuai” – and a view that explains it: from the top galleries the river loop unrolls in both directions, temple roofs and camphor crowns breaking the low skyline, and on clear days the flat land runs so far that you believe the tower’s name, watching for the sea that stood here when the tower was first raised in the Song dynasty. The banks collect the old town’s memories: 泰州老街 Tàizhōu Lǎojiē Taizhou Old Street with its lantern-lined shopfronts, 桃园 Táo Yuán the Peach Garden where 孔尚任 Kǒng Shàngrèn Kong Shangren drafted The Peach Blossom Fan, and the nightly fountain and light show that gives the loop its hour of spectacle.

Wanghai Tower earns its plaque. Rebuilt in its present form early this century on the Song footprints, the tower rises three timber-and-lacquer storeys above its stone terrace, and the ground plaza – fountains, flagstones, old men with cages of thrushes – belongs to the city’s mornings. Climb for the river: the galleries frame the loop, the tour-boat docks below, and the whole argument of a moat town that turned its defence into its front garden.

The loop rewards a boat. Tour vessels leave the east-bank docks and run the full circuit past the tower, the old street and the willow banks, and from the water the town reads the way it was built to be read – walls’ worth of green, gates’ worth of bridges, pavilions set at the bends to catch the evening. Aerial photographs make the same point from above: the ring of water holds the old town like a bezel holds a stone.

Evening is the loop’s best hour. The lanterns come on along the boardwalks, the fountain runs its programme under the lights, and the tower itself goes gold above the water – the single most photographed minute in Taizhou. Walk the east bank from the old street, eat the morning-tea houses’ leftovers for dinner in the lantern lanes, and let the river close the day the way it has closed the town’s days since the walls came down.

Practicalities

Beyond the moat loop, the same 泰州市 Tàizhōu Shì Taizhou City keeps more doors on the itinerary: 溱湖 Qínhú Qinhu Wetland the reed maze west of town, 溱潼古镇 Qíntóng Gǔzhèn Qintong Ancient Town the canal lanes, 乔园 Qiáo Yuán Qiao Garden the Ming garden off the loop, or 李中水上森林 Lǐzhōng Shuǐshàng Sēnlín Lizhong Water Forest the flooded cypress in Xinghua – four more doors into the same 泰州市 Tàizhōu Shì Taizhou City. Once the loop is run, our Taizhou food map fills the table.

Practicalities

Words and Names

flowcloud would say Fengcheng River is what a city does with its old defences when the wars stop: fill them with fish, lanterns and tour boats, and build a tower tall enough to watch for the sea that left. All checked November 2026.

Getting there: The river loop encircles the old town core – Wanghai Tower and the plum-garden memorial sit on the east bank, walkable from the Pozi-jie shopping axis in ten minutes; the promenade is free with the tower and boat loop ticketed, and evening lanterns plus the nightly fountain are the best hour. All checked November 2026.