West Lake

A dawn walk along Su Causeway, where willows and six bridges gather the first light of West Lake.

An autumn moon spreads over still water by Gushan, turning the lakeside pavilion into a quiet mirror.

At the east end of Bai Causeway, melting snow leaves the bridge half-veiled in winter light.

The evening bell of Jingci Temple carries from Nanping Hill across the lake into dusk.

North and South Peaks face each other beyond the lake, their summits appearing to pierce the clouds.

Sunset catches Leifeng Pagoda above the southern lake, setting tower and water aglow.

Three stone pagodas south of Xiaoyingzhou turn moonlight on the lake into layered reflections.

Willows ripple along the southeastern shore while oriole song threads through the spring garden.

Lotus leaves stir in summer wind at Quyuan Garden, carrying old wine fragrance across the lakeside.

Historic Yongjin Gate recalls the Wuyue-era city wall, the spring-fed Yongjin Pool, and the legend of the golden ox.

At West Lake’s southeastern corner, Changqiao Park pairs the legendary Long Bridge with broad views toward Leifeng Pagoda at sunset.

Flower Harbor gathers garden paths, red fish, and southern lakeshore water into one bright scene.

Within Orioles Singing in the Willows, the Qian Kings Shrine recalls the Wuyue rulers and their legacy of protecting Hangzhou and shaping West Lake.

Beside Yue Fei's tomb at the foot of Qixia Ridge on West Lake, the shrine grew from a monastery granted in 1221 and was listed as a national key heritage site in 1961.

Raised as an islet with a pavilion by Hangzhou prefect Sun Meng in 1552, it is the spot Zhang Dai rowed to on a snowy night in his celebrated sketch.

Layered lakes and stacked peaks are pristine and fair. With autumn sweet osmanthus and ten leagues of lotus blooms. Markets display jewels and pearls, households overflow with silk brocades, vying in splendor.

West Lake is at its most splendid in spring and under the moon; in a single day, at morning mist and evening mountain haze. This year spring snow was heavy and plum blossoms were held back by cold, blooming together with apricot and peach in an extraordinary spectacle.

Mist and frost coalesced into boundless haze; sky, clouds, hills, and waters were pure white above and below. Shadows on the lake were merely one line of long dike, one dot of Mid-Lake Pavilion, one blade of grass for my skiff, and two or three mustard seeds for the passengers aboard.

On West Lake during the Mid-Seventh Month, there is nothing worth seeing except the crowds who come to look. Viewing these crowds, one classifies them into five types... When moonlight turned pale and the east showed white, the guests finally dispersed.

Lotus leaves reaching to the sky, an endless green; lotus blossoms catching the sun, a red like no other.

If I were to compare West Lake to Xi Shi, light make-up or heavy, either way she is lovely.

On the tomb of the Prince of E the grass grows thick; in the autumn sun, desolate, the stone beasts stand tottering. The ruler and ministers who crossed south made light of the state; the elders of the Central Plains watched for the banners. The hero is dead; what use is lamenting now? The realm was split in two and could no longer hold. Do not sing this song by the West Lake: the light on the water and the colours of the hills cannot bear such grief.

Wrote of West Lake in “Watching the Ocean Tide (Southeast Majestic Realm)”. Northern Song lyricist of long slow-tune songs such as Bells in the Rain, sung so widely that it was said every place with a well knew his words

Wrote of West Lake in “Record of an Evening Tour on Six Bridges Awaiting the Moon”. Leader of the Gong'an School and Master of Late Ming Expressive Prose

Wrote of West Lake in “Watching Snow at the Mid-Lake Pavilion”; Wrote of West Lake in “West Lake on the Fifteenth of the Seventh Month”. Supreme Master of Late Ming Essay and Author of Tao'an Dream Memories

Wrote of West Lake in “Leaving Jingci Temple at Dawn to See Off Lin Zifang”. Southern Song poet and official from Jishui whose lively, colloquial manner came to be called the Chengzhai style, one of the four poets of the Restoration era

Wrote of West Lake in “Drinking on the Lake, First Clear, Then Rain, No. 2”. Northern Song writer, calligrapher and official, exiled to Huangzhou after the Crow Terrace poetry trial and later to Huizhou and Hainan

Mentions West Lake in “Tomb of Prince Yue of E”. Descendant of the Song imperial house who served the Yuan as a Hanlin academician and whose calligraphy and landscapes set the course of Yuan painting and writing

Part of West Lake's history: Renewal of Ink Painting. Painter and seal carver, a carpenter by training, who settled in Beijing in 1917 and became known for freehand flowers, birds, shrimps, crabs and insects and for his seals.

Part of West Lake's history: Renewal of Ink Painting. Painter and seal carver who lived in Beijing from 1913, working at the Ministry of Education and teaching painting, wrote The Value of Literati Painting and championed Qi Baishi.

Part of West Lake's history: Renewal of Ink Painting. Painter and art educator who, back from France, headed the Beijing art school and in 1928 founded the National Academy of Art in Hangzhou, championing a blend of Chinese and Western painting.

Part of West Lake's history: Renewal of Ink Painting. Painter and art educator trained in drawing and oil painting in Paris, author of Tian Heng and His Five Hundred Retainers and The Foolish Old Man Who Moved the Mountains, and head of the Beiping art academy.

Part of West Lake's history: Renewal of Ink Painting. Landscape painter and art historian who spent thirty years editing art publications in Shanghai, co-edited the Meishu congshu with Deng Shi, and in old age built his landscapes from layer upon layer of ink.

Bai Juyi's Tang-era West Lake works repaired dikes and gates, expanded storage, and improved irrigation for the fields around Qiantang.

In 936, Wuyue ruler Qian Yuanguan cut Yongjin Pool, brought West Lake water into the city, and built Yongjin Gate.

In 954, Wuyue ruler Qian Hongchu founded Jingci Temple, whose bells became the cultural heart of Evening Bell at Nanping Hill.

During the Wuyue period, Leifeng Pagoda rose on West Lake's southern shore as the landmark of the Leifeng sunset scene.

In 1077, Hangzhou founded Biaozhongguan to honor the Wuyue kings; it later evolved into the Qian Kings Shrine.

In 1090, Su Shi led a West Lake dredging project that formed Su Causeway and set three stone towers to define the lake's planting boundary.

From the Southern Song onward, four-character names gathered West Lake's landscapes and seasonal moods into the Ten Scenes.

Renewal of Ink Painting

Qi Baishi's late-life change of style created his red-flower, ink-leaf manner, Lin Fengmian founded the National Academy of Art by West Lake and Xu Beihong led the art college in Beiping: Chinese painting moved into the modern age through new art schools.

The 1924 collapse transformed the Leifeng sunset from a standing pagoda into a memory carried by ruins.

In March 1928 the National Academy of Art opened at Luo Garden on Gushan by West Lake in Hangzhou, with Lin Fengmian as its first president; it grew into today's China Academy of Art.

In the 1950s, Yongjin Park was established near the old gate site and joined with Liulangwenying as a lakeside attraction.

In the 1980s, clean water from the Qiantang River began flowing into West Lake, strengthening urban supply and lake health.

From 1999 to 2003, West Lake underwent its third major dredging since 1949, increasing depth and storage capacity.

At the start of the 21st century, comprehensive protection joined water management, heritage repair, and public landscape work into a long-term program.

The pagoda was rebuilt on its original site in 2002, restoring the Leifeng sunset to the complete Ten Scenes tradition.

A 2010 scenic-area plan placed Changqiao Park within West Lake's management and visitor-service structure.

In 2011, the West Lake Cultural Landscape entered the World Heritage List, placing its hydraulic, garden, and historic features within an integrated protection framework.