Firefly Theme Park at East Lake

A bug-themed amusement park might seem kind of offputting at first... but a lightning bug-themed experience is a whole other story. Something about them brings back memories of childhood summers spent catching them in jars and watching them flicker across the forest... and China's latest craze is bringing those memories back to life! Located in the Peony Garden at Wuhan's popular East Lake, the "theme park" is more of an immersive firefly experience on a level that you won't find anywhere else. 10,000 of the magical creatures were brought in from another province to illuminate the park each night, and they've since multiplied-- there's now reportedly between 30,000 and 50,000 of the lovely bugs in the park.   Activities inside the park range from walks in the "zero-distance contact zone" to education in the science center, dedicated to teaching children and adults alike all about fireflies, from how they light up to how they're being threatened by climate change and development. You can even camp out in the park, among the glowing lightning bugs or take a boat ride through the glowing forest-- how cool is that? Plus, on another level, the park is creating a safe habitat for fireflies to breed and live happily. It's not cheap to breed fireflies, which, although native to China, are slowly becoming more and more of a rarity. But it's well worth it because the park is incredibly popular. Tickets were sold out for days after the grand opening, and it remained well-attended until it closed for the season in October. Fear not, though-- it'll open again in the spring! Because, let's be real, who wouldn't want to spend the evening lost in an enchanting firefly wonderland? - Roadtrippers East Lake (Chinese: 东湖; pinyin: Dōng Hú) is a large lake within the city limits of Wuhan, China, and the largest urban lake in China. Wuhan's East Lake covers an area of 88 square kilometers (33 square kilometers of water area). It is one of the 5A tourist zones of China. East Lake admit over million people yearly. It is one of the largest sites in Huazhong District. It is also the largest "City Lake" in China. East Lake is made of four areas, Ting Tao, Mo Shan, Luo Yan Island and Museum of Hubei Province. One end of Mo Shan features a Daoist temple built over the putative site of where one of the characters in "Romance of Three Kingdoms" performed special Qi Men Dun Jia rites before the famous battle of Red Cliffs. No one knows precisely the actual location, but the Mo Shan site was an archeological dig in the early part of the twentieth century. - Wikipedia