Birdwatching and Camping at Shijiu Lake

Festival overview

Birdwatching and camping at Shijiu Lake are two kinds of outdoor experience built on the wetland migratory birds and the lakeshore flats of Shijiu Lake. This entry does not write them as a festival with fixed organisers and fills in neither organisers nor edition numbers, but sets out the birdwatching and camping information in the sources available by kind and by year.

Birdwatching: a report reposted by the Nanjing Municipal People's Government website in December 2025 records that Nanjing is an important node on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway and that Shijiu Lake has accordingly been called a "swan lake"; the Longmao Grass Sea viewing point beside Zhongyang Village in Hefeng Town, Lishui District, is one of the popular birdwatching points along Shijiu Lake. The Lishui District forestry technology extension station, working with the local authorities, organises four specialist teams to observe and record birds along Shijiu Lake from November to March each year, and has set up twenty-four digital video monitoring devices along the shore to monitor swans and other migratory birds in real time and to detect and stop human disturbance in good time. That period is the observation period of the monitoring teams and is not the whole period for which the migratory birds stay. On watching birds responsibly, the Lishui police have extended ecological policing to the birdwatching front line; the Swan Guard of the Hefeng Town police station has patrolled the lakeshore on foot and by vehicle since 2020, holding up signs reading "Watch birds politely, do not disturb living creatures".

Camping: the 2023 reply of the Lishui District People's Government records that people often camp overnight along the shore and on the flats at Zhangxu Village, Hefeng Town, and that litter is thrown about; Hefeng Town was next to add signs on responsible tourism and safety and to add staff for guidance and refuse clearance at the main tourist times. The 2023 reply of the Lishui District Culture and Tourism Bureau records that Luoshan Fireworks Camping Park and the Menghuayuan Flower Sea Camping Base were among the first officially recommended camping grounds of the municipal culture and tourism bureau; that "first officially recommended" list is the district bureau's account, and this library has not verified the official names and the total number of grounds in the municipal bureau's list.

The four seasons: the 2023 reply of the Lishui District Culture and Tourism Bureau records that ecological tourism at Shijiu Lake has formed the four-season viewing theme of "grass sea in spring, lake surface in summer, sunset in autumn, swans in winter"; the 2023 reply of the Lishui District People's Government records that in recent years a "internet-famous grass" landscape has appeared along the lake at Xujia Village, Hefeng Town, and Sanxing Village, Shiqiu Subdistrict, in April and May. Birdwatching is in winter and camping mostly in the warm months, and the two are not in the same season.

The detailed versions and sources of the bird counts, the protection statuses and the birdwatching points are given in the Wetlands and Migratory Birds entry in this library; this entry writes only the experience itself and does not repeat its figures.

Past editions

• 2007: according to the 2023 reply of the Lishui District People's Government, swans were first found at Shijiu Lake; by the date of that document (2023) sixteen years had passed, and at their most numerous the swans numbered several thousand, while the birds at their most gathered numbered tens of thousands. Both are peak figures and must not be written as standing numbers.
• 2020: according to a People's Daily Online report of November 2020, Lishui carried out a full return of fishing grounds to the lake, removing twenty-eight thousand mu of nets from Shijiu Lake, and the swans' range widened accordingly; the twenty-eight thousand mu is the area of nets removed on that occasion, not the area of the lake.
• 2022: according to the 2023 reply of the Lishui District Culture and Tourism Bureau, the "Born in Lishui, Naturally Wuxiang: 2022 Lishui Camping Season" series was launched, running camping activities of different styles and themes in a small-scale, multi-site form.
• 2023: the 2023 reply of the Lishui District Culture and Tourism Bureau records that the bureau brought Hefeng Town together with companies and the village collective to build Lishui's first distinctive camping ground, Luoshan Fireworks Camping Park, which became one of the twelve camping grounds first recommended by the municipal culture and tourism bureau; the Menghuayuan, Yueye Light Luxury, Shenshan Lake and Tiansheng Bridge camping grounds were built at the same time; and that spring festival the third Great Dragon Cultural Festival and the first Shijiu Lake Fireworks Festival were held at the Luoshan Fireworks camping ground. The names of the camping grounds are set down as they stand, and this library has not verified their scale or facilities.
• 2025: according to the report reposted by the Nanjing Municipal People's Government website in December 2025, a member of staff of the Lishui District forestry technology extension station said that the number of swans was only one to two thousand ten years earlier, rose to more than thirty thousand in the winter of 2020, has stayed at more than five thousand in recent years because the water level is low, and in 2025 reached a peak for the same period in three years.
• 2026: according to a Xinhua Daily report of April 2026, in the 2026 Jiangsu provincial synchronised wintering waterbird survey the number of swans in the Shijiu Lake wetland in Lishui reached 5,382, the highest in three years; that figure is a single count from the synchronised survey of January 2026, not a standing number, and it is reported at second hand, this library having found no original text for the Shijiu Lake figure on the provincial forestry bureau website.

The bird figures above are counts from different years and different survey methods; this entry sets them side by side and neither averages nor abbreviates them. The detailed versions and sources are given in the Wetlands and Migratory Birds entry in this library.

Practical information

• Birdwatching season: the observation period of the monitoring teams given in the sources available is November to March each year; that period is the monitoring period and is not the whole period for which the migratory birds stay. Camping is mostly in the warm months and is not in the same season as birdwatching.
• Birdwatching points: the sources available name only the Longmao Grass Sea beside Zhongyang Village in Hefeng Town; this entry adds no other birdwatching points.
• Camping points: the sources available name the shore and flats at Zhangxu Village, Hefeng Town, and camping grounds including Luoshan Fireworks Camping Park and the Menghuayuan Flower Sea Camping Base; the names of the camping grounds are set down as they stand, and this library has not verified their scale or facilities.
• Responsible birdwatching and safety: do not disturb the migratory birds when watching them; the 2023 reply of the Lishui District People's Government already noted litter being thrown about at the camping on the shore at Zhangxu Village and planned to add signs on responsible tourism and safety. Camping, fires and fireworks along the lake are subject to the official notices of the local subdistrict and town and of the managing authorities.
• Information date: this entry was checked to September 2026; the birdwatching points, camping grounds and opening, charges and safety requirements change from season to season, and before travelling readers should go to the official notices of the district culture and tourism department, the district forestry department and the local subdistrict and town.