Quantitative research on the development of eco-networks provides an important basis for habitat conservation and planning related decision-making; however, related theoretical research about the complexities of eco-networks development still remains in its infancy. Rapid urbanization around Taihu Lake of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces of eastern China has caused serious landscape fragmentation. The current green corridors, which have been merely developed for either ecological conservation or scenic tourism development, have proved inadequate for supporting the need to create an eco-city as well as to provide for sustainable regional development. The eco-city system surrounding Taihu Lake needs to include both physical eco-networks and virtual networks; that is, the entire system needs to include landscaping and provide recreational opportunities, while at the same time consider the less tangible aspects of the system's social and economic characteristics and functions. Thus, a pressing need exists for the development of strategies that consider various aspects of developing a multifaceted eco-network. This paper takes Taihu Lake as an example, using RS and GIS to initially simulate the development of ecological corridors based on the shortest path method. Next, a scale-free and complex network was developed by overlapping the graphic maps of ecological networks, landscape networks and recreational networks. This graphic network of layered GIS maps can provide important information to assist land managers in developing and optimizing the area's complex eco-network. The result demonstrates that the GIS-based map and graphics along with the scale-free network provide a good method to guide the development of a complex eco-network. As a result, one can see that an efficient yet complex eco-network is beneficial to the conservation of ecological resources, the landscape and the recreational resources. The results also indicate that the existing complex eco-network along the northern section of Taihu Lake, which is part of the Suzhou and Wuxi districts, has become very fragmented; as a result, additional work is need to provide additional resource protection and natural area interconnection. On the other side of Taihu Lake, the complex eco-network on the southern section in Huzhou District shows great potential for further improvement. The needs of this area should be carefully considered during future planning and development.