Why it looks like this

Huizhou, east of the Pearl River Delta, has a centre defined by water twice over: the Dong (East) River curves past the old town, and inside the bend lies Huizhou West Lake, a chain of lake basins wrapped by the historic streets.

China's beloved poet Su Dongpo spent years of exile here from 1094 and wrote warmly of the place; the lake causeway named for him mirrors the more famous one in Hangzhou. The modern city — grown rich on delta electronics manufacturing — grids outward from that watery core.