West Lake
The West Lake covers an area of 6.78 square kilometers. The average depth is 2.27 meters with the deepest being 5 meters. Three sides of the lake are surrouned by verdant mountains and one side of it properous city. The beauty of the lake lies in the harmounious conbination of humanistic and natural scenery.

An old Chinese saying declares, "There is heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below." Centuries later, Marco Polo called Hangzhou the most enchanting city in all the world. This is most evident in the West Lake area--the effective, if not geographic, center of Hangzhou.Su Shi, a poet from the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD), likened the lake to Xizi, a Chinese Cleopatra, for its allure.

Centering around the West Lake,the West Lake Scenic Area is a national scenic area with a total area of 59 square meters. Ten of the most beautiful sites include: Spring Dawn at Sudi Causeway, Melting Snow at Broken Bridge, Sunset Glow over Leifeng Hill, Lotus in the Breeze at Crooked Courtyard, Autumn Moon on Calm Lake (a lakeside park at the west end of the Bai Causeway), Listening to Orioles Singing in the Willows, Viewing Fish and Lotus Ponds at Flower Harbor, Evening Bell at Nanping Hill, Three Pools Mirroring the Moon and Twin Peaks Piercing the Clouds.

The West Lake is like a shining pearl inlaid on the vast land of China, reputed for beautiful scenery, a multitude of historical sites, brilliant cultural relics, and a profusion of native products. Legend has it that the West Lake was a heavenly jewel fallen to earth. Pragmatists insist that it is a mere lagoon on Hangzhou's western fringe. In any case, West Lake has inspired painters for centuries. In ancient times, this place had been an shallow sea gulf before it evolved into a residual lake. The Baidi and Sudi causeways provide access to many parts of the lake. Most of the best known tourist sites lie around and within the lake. With a circumference of 15km, the lake area itself is easy for the visitor to negotiate.

Lingyin Temple
The Lingyin (Souls Retreat) Temple is Hangzhou's most famous site aside from the West Lake and one of the best known Buddhist monasteries in China. It was built in 326 AD at the foot of Lingyin Mountain.In its heyday, the temple had nine towers, l8 pavilions and 75 halls, and housed as many as 3,OOO monks.

The main hall,33.6 metres high, is a single-storey, multi-eaves ancient building. It contains a sitting statue of Sakyamuni (19.6 metres in height, including the carved aureola board at the back and the lotus seat) which is the biggest such sculpture of wood still extant in China. On the wall in the rear of this hall is a colourful group-sculpture of 150 figures depicting the Buddhist story of Sudhana-Kumara visiting Avalokitesvara Budhisattva on an island. It is a work of a high artistic value.

Slightly behind the Temples in the woods up here are a lovely collection of stone carved Buddha who sit in the niches of the cliffs. The most impressive of these is a huge, fat "Laughing Buddha". In the Temples themselves are various gold statues of Buddha, posing in different positions and adopting a warrior stance. With magnificent mountains and high trees surrounding the monastery, the Lingyin Temple is a beautiful scenic spot with numerous cultural relics to see.

Solitary Island
Solitary Island (Gu Shan) sits in the northwest corner of the West Lake. It is a natural island, about 900m from the bank and surrounded by water and is a good place to appreciate West Lake. Views over the lake from here are spectacular and there are a few places of historical interest scattered about the island itself. Although the Hill is the lowest among all the hills in the West Lake, it is the biggest island in the West Lake.

Actually a 38-metre-high island between the Inner and Outer West Lake, this hill connects Baidi Causeway in the east to Xiling Bridge in the west. It is 3.3 kilometres from Hangzhou proper and is called Solitary because it stands alone in the lake, surrounded as it is by water on all sides. In its central section lies the Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen) Park, which is also its main entrance. Solitary Hill is noted for its ingenious layout that combines artificial and natural scenery. Now its tourist area has increased to 20 hectares. The city's best, busiest and most fun restaurant, Louwailou, is on the island. It is a great place to visit and a really fun experience.

9 Creeks & 18 Gullies
This pretty area known as "Nine Streams and Eighteen Gullies" is approximately a 20 minute walk from the Lingyin Temple. Despite the name, this is actually a pretty series of paths about 20 minutes west of the pagoda. Walk up a small lane away from the lake side until the Longjing Tea Plantations. It is a lovely walk and usually quite peaceful. It makes a nice break from the lake and you wander past tea terraces on the route up to the Dragon Spring. There are some quaint places to stop off along the way too, including a lagoon and a small pavilion which has been converted into a great tea and snack house.

Bai Causeway
Bai Causeway'Lingering Snow on the Broken Bridge Bai Causeway is the most ancient Causeway above the West lake. People name it after the constructor Baijuyi when he acted as city governor in Hangzhou. Broken Bridge is located at the east end of Bai Causeway. In the Chinese folk story "The legend of Lady White Snake",it is the place where White Snake Lady and Xu Xian met again after a lot of troubles. In addition, Bai Causeway is one of the ten scenes of the West Lake. It's a popular spot for couples to promenade and this walk takes you along the outer edge of Solitary Island.

Su Causeway
Su Causeway stretches for 2.8 kilometers,which is the longest series of bridges crossing over Hangzhou's West Lake. It was built of the clay of the West Lake by Sudongpo in 1089 of the Northern Song Dynasty when he organized a large-scale dredging of the lake as the governor of Hangzhou. The causeway runs across the lake from Nanping Road, to the "lotus in the Breeze Quyuan Garden". "There are six bridges on the West Lake, each of them planted with willows and peach trees in alternation" refers to Su Causeway in Spring. In the evenings, the causeway is illuminated by green lights and this is a favorite place for Chinese couples to promenade, holding hands and declaring their undying love. This is a lovely example of typical Chinese design and the style is beautifully delicate and refined.

Longjing Tea Plantation
One of the "Ten New Sights of the West Lake", this place is frequently visited by those who come for a taste of the Longjing tea, known for its greenness, fragrance, mellow taste, and beauty of tea leaves.It is lying on Fenghuang Hill with a wide area of water and is rich in spring water. Longjing actually means, "Dragon Well" and according to legend, the Dragon Well was discovered in about 230AD. This fresh spring water encouraged the people of Hangzhou to develop their own quality tea, and thus Longjing tea was born.

Longjing Tea tops the ten renowned teas in China. Now it is a resort to taste tea for leisure. A trip to the village of Longjing is a 30 minute cycle ride and most of the hotels in Hangzhou have bikes for hire. Tea terraces rise up on either side of the village and it's an interesting area to walk around and watch the locals at work. So many places here have tea for sale and it is hard to recommend which type or flavor is the best. Prices for the tea range from RMB500 for one kilo to RMB1,000 per kilo. But you can buy a nice tea for between RMB500 and RMB2000.

Mausoleum of General Yue Fei
The Mausoleum of General Yue Fei is one of Hangzhou's most popular attractions with Chinese visitors, perhaps due to the feelings of patriotism that it stirs in many people. It is set at the southern foot of the Qixia Hill, near the lake. General Yue Fei (1103-1142) was a national hero of the Southern Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD) who distinguished himself in battles against northern invaders.

Although Yue Fei was successful in keeping the invaders out of China, he was betrayed by a court official, Qin Hui and wrongly executed. In 1163 his reputation was recovered and his body dug up and reburied at this Mausoleum. To the left of the simple tomb, which was built in 1162, is a temple containing a statue of the general; people often come here to pray respects to this heroic martyr. In the two side halls of the temple are 120 tablets; the tablets are engraved with Yue Fei's poems as well as eulogies to him by noted figures.

It is quite an experience visiting here as the Chinese really despise Qin Hui, and statues of the traitor, his wife and two accomplices kneeling are spat at by passers-by.

Xiling Seal Society
Xiling Seal Society ,founded in 1904 during the reign of the Qing Emperor Guangxu, is a quaint little place located on Solitary Island, just opposite Zhongshan Park. This is a famous Chinese academic institute engaged in studying inscriptions and paintings. With a history of more than 1900 years the society have produced various books on painting and drawing and contributed to the preservation and continuance of national art and culture. Today, you can see the writers and artists at work and there is a small shop selling some of their works.

The whole place is graced by pavilions and towers skilfully laid out on the hillside, and these,together with winding paths and ponds, present a scenery typical of south China. Here one finds the Stone Chamber of the Three Venerables (who were famous seal-engraving artists) where a stone carving-Monument to the Three Venerables-that was cut in 52 A.D., during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), is preserved as a valuable cultural relic. On display in the Tower of Pleasant View are seals, calligraphic works and Chinese paintings. The highest point of the site of the Xiling Seal Engravers' Society is the Huayanjing Pagoda, a stone pagoda inscribed with the Avatamsaka sutra. This is a 1O-storey structure whose eight uppermost storeys have Buddhist images carved on their four sides.

When this society was first established in the late Qing Dynasty, the Japanese calligraphers Nagao Ko and Kawai Senro came to China across the sea and joined it. This organization has since enjoyed a reputation among Japan's calligraphers and painters, and remains a significant channel for Sino-Japanese cultural interflow.

Huagang Fish Pool
Besides hills and the West Lake, "Viewing Fish at Huagang Pond" was a private garden in the possession of a Song-dynasty official. The place is nestled at the foot of a hill and on the shore of the West Lake.Since a clear stream from Huajia Hill went through here and down into the west lake,it was named as "Flower Pond". Fish are raised in the pond, which is fed with runoffs from the Huajia mountain, and peonies are planted On the bank, so that the place becomes an ideal place for marveling at the fish and peonies.

Liuhe Pagoda
The Liuhe (Six Harmonies) Pagoda is situated on the top of the Yuelun Mountain. It has 13 floors viewed from outside and 7 floors inside and is 59.89 meters tall. It is a famous octagonal pagoda, founded in the third year of Kaibao(970) in the Northern Song Dynasty by King Qian Hongchu the kingdom of Wuyue to calm down the tide of Qiantang River. It is a pavilion style tower made of brick and wood. A stone staircase leads to the top, where one can enjoy the beauty of the Qiantang River.

The views from the top are spectacular and ironically, many people now come here to watch the waterfalls nearby in the heavy rain period. You can enjoy the beauty scenery of the Qiantang River after climbing the tower.

Close to the pagoda a "Pagoda Park" has recently opened up. This little park has an exhibition which details the history of the pagoda and the culture and symbols associated with it.

Jade Spring
The Jade Spring (yuquan) is in the Hangzhou Botanical Gardens west of the Yue Fei Mausoleum. This spring is about 12m long and 9m wide. Hundreds of pretty little fish live in the pool at the bottom of the Spring and there is a veranda here where swallows make their nests. The Botanical Gardens also have a pine tree which was presented to the city by US President Richard Nixon on his visit here in 1972.

Lake under the Autumn Moon
The "Lake Under the Autumn Moon" lies on both sides of the Bai Causeway on the West Lake. The interesting name stems from the fact that (according to an ancient poet), under the bright autumn moon the lake looks smooth and resembles a mirror. It features the "Autumn Moon on Calm Lake" Pavilion, the Pavilion of Imperial Stele, the Octagonal Pavilion, the Quadrangular Pavilion, and the Hutianyibi (Lake and Sky Merged in Verdure) Tower.

Artificial hillocks and imaginative rockery, exquisite bridges and smooth terraces as well as flowers and trees add to the scenery of this masterpiece of Chinese-style landscape architecture. As the most ravishing sight around Solitary Hill, this place is a vantage point for viewing moonlit scenery.It is a delight to view West Lake from here, particularly on a full-moon autumn night.

Tiger Running Spring
This park known as "Tiger Running Dream Spring" (Hupaomeng Quan) is one of the nicest parks in Hangzhou and filled with tea houses, pretty trees and pavilions. It lies on the west side of HupaoLu Road near Hangzhou Zoo. The combination of the Dragon Well tea and the spring water here, is said to be uniquely refreshing.

Seeping out of the hardly soluble quartzose sandstone, its water is pure, clear, sweet and cold. "Tea leaves from Dragon Well plus water from Tiger Running Spring" this is considered to be the best by the local people as far as the brewing of tea is concerned. Since it has a greater surface tension than ordinary underground water, Tiger Running Spring water, when poured into a cup, can rise three mm over its brim without overflowing. When lightly placed on the water surface, a nickel coin will remain floating. Scientific tests have established that regular drinking of water from this spring is good for health.

Xiaoying Island and the Three Pools
The nicest way to get to this outlying island is by boat. It is well worth paying the RMB 100-200 to take a boat from the shore over to the lake as it is a lovely experience. Xiaoying Island was created in 1607 using silt from the West Lake. There are smaller lakes inside the big West Lake and smaller islands inside Xiaoying Island.

The entire island is dotted with pavilions and platforms and the small islets are linked by bridges and railings. At the southern-most tip of the island, there is a pavilion of "Mutual Affinity", which affords great views over Santayinyue Lake. The name of this lake means "Three Flags reflecting the Moon". The name derives from the fact that the three Flags (actually pagodas) are said to reflect the evil spirits that may be hiding in the lake.