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.

View of Jingyuetan National Forest Park, in the southeastern part of Changchun, Jilin province.[Photo/China Daily]

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."

An unexpected bonus to the forest came in the form of a skiing industry. The industry has been fully developed with skiing becoming another bridge that connects Changchun with the world.

Each year, large groups of skiing fans and professional athletes from around the world come for the China Changchun Vasaloppet International Skiing Festival.

As a state-level AAAAA tourist resort, the Clean Moon Lake forest park boasts perfect infrastructure like roads, water supply and drainage, street lamps and mobile toilets, completed ski resorts, roller skating bases, forest baths, golf courses, towers and a wildlife park. It is an excellent choice for Changchun residents and visitors from elsewhere to go for an outing in spring.

"This is a place of friendship and happiness, and a place that leads in health and fashion," said Yang Wenjun.

Indeed, the Clean Moon Lake is more than a natural geological landscape. The awe and love it receives from the Changchun people is as affectionate and warm as that towards a goddess. She is the symbol and sign of Changchun city, and the spiritual source of the people living here as well.

The author is China Daily Jilin Bureau chief.