Sword Pond is the sight this mountain is named for, and it is a pool of water with a story on it. Jianchi (剑池) is the Chinese name: jian is sword, chi is pool. Anyone expecting a lake or a gorge has read the name wrong.
The pond sits above the transfer centres, on the ticketed side of the mountain as far as anyone publishes. The mountain is in Deqing County, Huzhou prefecture, Zhejiang Province, an hour and a half by road from Hangzhou and 200 to 240 km out of Shanghai, under bamboo that covers more than 92 percent of the slopes. (Moganshan Road, which owns most of the English search results, is a street in Shanghai.)
| Getting in | No private cars past Yucun, Fatou or Houwu, all 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Ticket | Published at RMB 50 to 130 by sources that disagree |
| Best conditions | A few days after rain |
| Time on site | Short. You pass through it on a longer walk |
Worth the walk if you are already inside the scenic area and the story interests you. On its own it does not justify the ticket and the transfer.
The legend of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye
Start with the label, because it decides how to read the rest. This is legend, not documented history, and this site will not dress it up.
Gan Jiang (干将) and Mo Ye (莫邪) were a husband and wife who worked metal in the Spring and Autumn period. In the story told here they forged swords for the King of Wu, though the early texts also give the commission to the King of Chu and to the lord of Jin, and none of them names this mountain; where the legend comes from goes through each source. Quenching is the part that matters. A smith heats a blade, then drops it into water to harden the steel. Sword Pond is said to be that water.
The name follows from theirs. Mo, from Mo Ye. Gan, from Gan Jiang. Shan (山) is mountain. Mo, gan, shan: 莫干山.
No date attaches beyond the period, and there is no excavation and no artefact behind it. The story runs through general Chinese cultural reference and through the naming material behind the mountain’s branding, and retellings vary. That is the whole of its standing.
Gan Jiang, Mo Ye and the swords for King Helü of Wu, Zhao Ye (赵晔), Wu Yue Chunqiu (吴越春秋), the Helü chapter (阖闾内传), Eastern Han, read in the Wikisource edition on 4 November 2026, tier 2. Recorded as legend, not as documented history. https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E5%90%B3%E8%B6%8A%E6%98%A5%E7%A7%8B/%E9%97%94%E9%96%AD%E5%85%A7%E5%82%B3
The local version and the naming of the pond and the mountain, Huzhou Municipal People’s Government (湖州市人民政府), “The origin of the name Moganshan”, 19 November 2008, tier 1, as the city’s published account of a legend. http://custom.huzhou.gov.cn/hzgov/front/s678/dawh/rwls/dgp/20081119/i3926548.html
A legend still does work. This one explains the swords in the local branding, and it is why a modest pool outranks bigger sights nearby. If the story does nothing for you, what is left is a walk in good bamboo.
Getting to it
Say the story is enough for you. Then getting there starts a long way below the pond, with one rule English language sources almost never print. Private vehicles cannot drive inside the scenic area. You leave the car at one of three transfer centres, all open 08:00 to 18:00.
| Starting from | How you get there |
|---|---|
| Deqing station | Y1 shuttle, RMB 10, 30 to 40 minutes, seven a day. Taxi about RMB 100, about 30 minutes |
| A village guesthouse | Road to a transfer centre, then scenic area transport up |
| The old hill station | On foot, on the stone paths between the named sights |
Scenic area vehicle rule, transfer centre hours and Y1 shuttle fares, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, 1 to 5 August 2026.
The last stretch is on foot, on built stone, from wherever your transport leaves you. Ask at the transfer centre counter when you buy the ticket, and they will tell you how far it is from that particular gate.
Sword Pond sits inside the ticketed core, as our scenic area page sets out. Published prices run from RMB 50 to RMB 130, and tickets and entry has both sets.
You can also walk all the way up from Yucun. The old stone path, the Chiang Kai shek path, reaches the Waterfall Viewing Bridge below the pond at about 3.8 km and the pond soon after. The path is free, but the pond is not: walkers have reported an unstaffed ticket booth on the way up to it, so buy the ticket at the Yucun transfer centre before you set off.
The Waterfall Viewing Bridge at 3.8 km and about 430 m on the loop from Yucun Square, Youxiake (游侠客) community, group leader 佩琪, October 2023, tier 3. https://bbs.youxiake.com/y/1053344.html
An unstaffed booth for walkers’ tickets on the path up to Sword Pond, NetEase (网易), travel writer 知行摄旅行, 15 December 2020, tier 3. https://www.163.com/dy/article/FTTJ9B4A0524RGKC.html
What it is like to stand there
Season matters less here than last week’s weather. How much rain fell before you came decides what you are looking at.
After a wet spell there is movement and sound. In a dry late summer the same place is low and flat, with pale rock showing around the rim. Both are the real Sword Pond. Only one of them matches the pictures.
People also search for a Moganshan waterfall and land here. The falls are the stream below the pond. It is crossed by seven bridges in the 200 m below the water, one of them the Waterfall Viewing Bridge (观瀑桥), and how much goes over the rocks comes and goes with the rain.
Seven bridges in the 200 m below Sword Pond, among them the Waterfall Viewing Bridge (观瀑桥), Huzhou Release (湖州发布) on The Paper (澎湃新闻), 16 December 2023, tier 4, as the city’s publicity account published it. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_25687212
So much for the water. The surroundings do not depend on it. You stand in moso bamboo, cut and sold as a crop, and on a windy day the poles knock and creak overhead. Two minutes of standing still is worth more than another photograph. July and August average 24.1 °C up here, 6 to 7 °C below Shanghai and Hangzhou, and shade over water in August is the oldest reason anybody climbed this hill.
Grey weather does not waste the trip, since low cloud suits bamboo. Wet stone argues for shoes with grip, which walking and hiking covers.
With children
Yes, if the child can manage a flight of stone steps.
Steps are the limiting factor on this mountain, and the pond is reached by a flight of them. Past that the ground is kind. Paths are laid stone the whole way, and at 719 to 720 metres the height does nothing to anybody.
- Leave the pushchair below. Nothing on this mountain is built for wheels.
- Carry a small child. Steps are the whole of the access question here.
- Hold hands at the water. The edge is stone and the depth is not obvious.
- Ask the guesthouse the night before. They will know today’s answer on water level and access.
When to go, and what to put with it
The transfer centres run 08:00 to 18:00, and that window is the day you get, whatever the light is doing.
| When | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Mondays and midweek | Notably quiet. The easiest version of this walk |
| Weekends | Where the volume sits, all year |
| May Day and National Day | 94 percent high end occupancy in May 2024. Yucun footfall 30 to 40 percent above normal at National Day 2025 |
| January | Mean 1.4 °C, half price under the higher ticket set, nobody there |
Holiday occupancy, footfall and seasonal temperatures, BeyondBorder Group Ltd primary research, 1 to 5 August 2026.
In those two weeks there are queues at the photogenic points, and this is one of them.
Which leaves the question of what to put around it. Sword Pond does not fill a morning by itself. It sits in the ticketed core alongside Luhuadang Park, Dakeng and the Xuguang sunrise platform, linked by stone paths. What works is the villa streets of the old hill station first, then the pond, then a bamboo path down to lunch in Yucun. Things to do has the rest of the list, and what and where Moganshan is is the starting point.
Go up on the first transfers of the morning. The paths are emptier at that hour, and you spend the afternoon walking instead of counting backwards from a gate that shuts at six.
Last checked 5 November 2026 by Liyan Ye. Prices, timetables and entry rules on this mountain move without notice, so confirm anything you are booking around.
Photographs on this site are representative illustrations, not documentary images of the specific building, property or service described.
