Going to Dishui Lake is a bit of a journey and so far not a lot of people seem eager to go. The area is huge and for the most part, desolate in spite of all the construction going on. Eventually, if the real estate billboards are to be believed, the area will become quite attractive. For now, it’s mostly empty and quite.

Our journey begins by starting at Longyang Road metro station and take line 16 to the end (about 55-minutes). The seating on the train is like a commuter so get on quick and find a good seat. Once arrive at the metro station, go out Dishui Lake exit and up to the lake promenade. There are a few vendors selling food, drinks, and other stuff.

I visited on a weekday morning and the lake was nearly deserted. The whole area is mostly under construction and there seems to be a lot more planned.  So far, most of Dishui lake area is empty land or under construction.

From the metro station I walked to Crown Plaza which seems like a nice hotel. It is pretty cool looking architecture wise and walking around the lakeside paths was relaxing.

At the hotel there are bike rentals and you can take a short boat ride out on the lake.

Circumnavigating the lake took almost two hours. Once you go past the hotel, there are no more vendors so get water before embarking on the journey. Worth doing if you like to walk but there’s not much of anything on the other side of the lake.

China Maritime Museum

The China Maritime Museum at Dishui Lake is very cool; Excellent actually. There are many exhibitions ranging from ancient relics to modern container ships. There are many scale models of historical boats and artifacts on display. Additionally, in the central hall is a full scale replica of a Ming Dynasty merchant junk boat.  You can walk on the deck and look around; it’s pretty big.

Enjoy strolling about looking at the displays or get an audio guided tour which lasts about 2-hours. English and Chinese descriptions are posted together which is very helpful.

In the ancient history hall don’t miss the raft made with blown-up pig skins. Before you go, lookup movie times for the 4D cinema and the planetarium. When I was there the last showing for the planetarium was at 14:30 so I missed it unfortunately.

During my visit there was a very nice display of local children’s artwork. At first, I walked by quickly and thought, “Oh, this is nice”. Though on closer inspection I was impressed with the quality and detail of the artwork. Most of the kids were only 7-10 years old.

My recommendation for a day-trip is to go early morning out to the Yangshan deep water port, a pre-packed lunch, then on the way back visit the China Maritime Museum.

Crowne Plaza Hotel at Dishui Lake

The building and grounds are well kept and nice to walk about. This is a good place to stay for either an overnight get away or a conference.

As of August 2016, there is still a lot of construction going on and a few amenities are unready, although the hotel itself is fine. For example, just across from the hotel is a new walking path which is unfinished and there are lots of worker barracks on the property.

Overall, I liked the conference center and as the surrounding area develops there will be more reasons to stay here.

Website: Crowne Plaza Shanghai Harbour City

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