Clean Moon Lake: the spiritual origin of a city

View of Jingyuetan National Forest Park, in the southeastern part of Changchun, Jilin province.

First built in 1934, the Clean Moon Lake sits 40 minutes from People’s Plaza in downtown Changchun, Jilin province. The lake received its Zenic and poetic name for its shape. Surrounded by a forest, the 4.3 square kilometer lake with crystal clear water is like a glittering sapphire. It is a sister lake of the Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan. Both have similarly beautiful legends.

The Clean Moon Lake forest park has more than 100 mountain ridges, big and small, while nothing special or unique they exude a slow and deliberate feeling.

The water of the Clean Moon Lake is neither vast nor deep, but is pellucid, pure and quiet. It is even more unimaginable that the trees here did not grow by themselves, but are instead planted by the citizens of Changchun, something the people take great pride in. For the past 70 plus years, the Changchun people, with their cultural depositions and a scientific attitudes, have been planting trees and regulating the rivers and watercourses, extending the area of the man made forest from 1,000 hectares in the 1930s to 10,000 hectares today.

“Basically, Changchun people all have planted trees here. It has become a habit. These trees and the forest planted are now feeding back the city and the citizens,” said Yang Wenjun, deputy director of Clean Moon Lake Management Committee.

This urban woodland created and protected by generations of Changchun people has become the largest artificial forest in Asia now. It is home to 84 wild animals, including deer, foxes, various birds, and even Arctic foxes.

“All the effort has been worth it,” said Yang Wenjun. “The place has become the ‘lungs’ of Changchun. For more than 345 days a year, we have excellent air quality.”