This Lake has a lakeside of 5km in all and covers a land and water area of 40 ha. It enjoys a fame of being the first scenic spot in Jinling (another name for Nanjing). The lake has many beautiful stories. One tells that in the Northern and Southern dynasties(420-589), a beautiful and intelligent girl named Mochou was married to her husband in Nanjing at 15. When she was 16 she had a baby and a happy family. However, her husband was conscripted and marched to battlefield, never sending message back. She missed him so much that she turned into a pool of water trying to flow to where her husband stationed. In order to commemorate the lady, the pool was named Mochou Lake after her. This is after all, a legend, but actually the lake itself, about two thousand years ago, was the bed of the Yangtze River.

Historical records of the lake were only found in the late Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 AD) and early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). (around 14th Century). When Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty chose Nanjing as his capital, Mochou Lake was built as the residential place for his close minister Xuda, a very powerful and influential figure in the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Then it was then built into a park and the scenery was so beautiful that people honored it as the number one sight in Jinling. In the its long history, the lake experienced numerous ups and downs and lots of beautiful poems were written praising the scenery. The beautiful park was destroyed by wars and fires in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD) when Xianfeng was the emperor. It was rebuilt again in 1871 and turned into a park in 1929 but was unfortunately destroyed again in the Anti-Japanese War and Liberation War and was virtually abandoned until the 1950s.

There are many scenic spots in the lake, but the most famous of all is the Shengqi Tower (Chess-winning Tower). It was said that Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty often played chess with Xuda here in this tower. Xuda was an excellent player but he often deliberately lost. Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang knew his intention. He was unhappy and demanded that he should play with all his skill. Xuda agreed but practically won the Emperor by arranging the chessmen in the shape of a Chinese character 'longevity'. Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was so pleased that he gave the tower under which they played chess as a gift to Xuda and named it as 'Winning Chess Tower'.

Today, the lake is restored and enlarged into one of the largest gardens in Nanjing. On the one hand, it keeps the historical face of the lake, and on the other hand, created a lot of scenery. The layout of the lake structure is the combination of traditional Chinese architecture among trees and flowers, water and mountains. In the west of the Shengqi Tower is the Yujin Hall, where you can see the imagined portrait of Mochou girl.