West Lake

With the charming West Lake, Hangzhou was given the honorable name of "paradise on earth" long ago. It is just as Su Dongpo, a Song Dynasty poet and governor of the city, described, "West Lake to Hangzhou is exactly the eye and brow to a beauty. Without the lake, can the beauty remain?"

The charm of the lake lies in the harmonious combination of nature and art, as well as of scenic spots and the rich culture. It is like a shining pearl embellished in the west of the city, embraced on three sides by green hills, deep caves and crystal springs of enchanting beauty. One is impressed for the ever-changing aspects of attraction in the seasons with an exclamation of "beyond description". The lake covers 5.68 sq. km with a circumference of approximately 15 km and with water storage of 8.5-8.7 million cubic meters. The Solitary Hill is the largest island on it and the Su Causeway which runs from north to south and the Bai Causeway which runs from east to west look like two soft ribbons floating on the water, dividing it into five parts, namely Outer Lake, Back Lake, Inner Lake, Yue Lake and Little Southern Lake. Therefore, it's no surprising to say "with numerous lakes in the world, the best is in Hangzhou".

According to the historical records, the lake was only a bay connected with Qiantang River 2000 year ago. As time passed, sand brought by Qiantnag River and from the surrounding hills silted up, and turned the bay into a lagoon. Thus came the West Lake, which has been called "Wulin Water", and later "Saint Lake", "Gold Bull Lake", "Dragon Lake", ":Qiantang Lake" and "Upper Lake". It was not until the Song Dynasty that Su Dongpo wrote a poem which compared the lake to a beautiful girl named Xi Shi from Zhuji County who looked just as charming without any make-up as when she was heavily decked out. The poem goes like this:

Shimmering, sparking, sun-drenched lake
All beauty to the view;
Far hills, mist-shrouded, glimpsed through showers.
Are as charming, too.
Men say no jewels or robes enchanted
The beauty of Xi Zi:
And West Lake, decked or unadorned, May well be compared with her.

Xi Zi is the pet name of the girl. Hence it got an elegent name "Xi Zi Lake". Besides, the lake is in the west of the city, so it was named the "West Lake" in the Tang Dynasty.

Visitors are amazed and attracted by the beautiful lake, let alone "Ten Sites" named and written by the emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty. Bai Juyi, a celebrated poet and mayor of Hangzhou in the Tang Dyansty, was so attached to the west Lake that he couldn't help "leaving his half soul here when leaving Hangzhou", that he wrote later in Remembering Hangzhou that "being away from Qiantang lake and hills, I have no desire to recite and drink, hoping to tell the moon and the lake this attachment in a letter". For centuries, scholars and writers were intoxicated by the magical beauty, leaving behind affluent great poems and essays. And international friends came to know it, visiting, appreciating, and writing to praise her charm.

Apart from the natural beauty, the West Lake is connected with the rich culture and history. The ancient national heroes named YueFei, Yu Qian, Zhang Cangshui, as well as the 1911 Revolutionists Qiu Jin, Xu Xilin, Tao Chenzhang are lying buried calmly among the green and lush hills. The ancient rock carvings, inscription and architectures are undoubtedly the precious treasure. Since the new China was founded in 1949, with the lake dredged, trees planted, the particularity retained and cultivated, the lake has been adorned to be much more enchanting. There's no wonder, therefore, why it has early been accepted as the national level and Hangzhou has been listed as one of the most important tourist and cultural cities.