west lake

Su Dongpo, a celebrated Song-dynasty poet, likened the West Lake to Lady Xizi, a stunning beauty of the Spring and Autumn Period, and so the lake became also known as the Xizi Lake. Despite its beautiful name, for a long period of time the Wet Lake was nothing but a natural reservoir that provkded irrigation water for local farmland. This fact was borne out bu a poem the famous Tangpoet Bai Juyi wrote for the local people when leaving Hangzhou towards the end of his tenure as a local official:” As I bid farewell to you all, I have nothing but a lake full of water for you, in case you come across a year of major fdrought.”

The West Lake became a famed scenic place in China only after it was repeatedly dredged and developed by sagacious people of various dynasties, especially after it was protected, developed and eulogized by Bai Juyi and Su Dongpo.

However, that the West Lake has become a scenic lake with superb tourist value is no coincidence. First, the lake is prodigally endowed with a picturesque landscape. Skirted on three sides by verdant mountains, and opening on the fourth side to a flatland, the lake has all the makings of a superb landscape. The three sides by verdant mountains, and opening on the fourth side to a faltland, the lake has all the makings of a superb landscape. The green mountains that skirt the auspicious portents from heaven, while the flatland on the fourth side offers ample space for ventilation. The layout of the lake is closely knit yet it leaves much leeway for further landscaping, the mountains around it are by no means high, but they are full of depth. Its water surface is not boundless, yet it changes in a most rhythmic way. The area around the lake looks all the more graceful because of the curves that form the contours of the terrain, and by a verdant greenness that sets the basic colour tune. The West Lake also has a lot to thank the people of bygone days for, who made resourceful decisions in developing it, piling up mud dug from the lake to construct dykes and isles, and beautifying them with pagodas, bridges, pavilions and terraces and trees, flowers and plants. Threes man-made scenes and sights are set in such harmony with the environment that the West Lake becomes richer in both tourist resources and cultural underpinning. The three isles on the lake are evocative of the Pengali Island, the fable abode for immortals. The scenery of the West Lake has such a soothing effect that an angry man is bound to come to his senses of he cares to pay a visit to the lake and infer philosophic meanings from the tranquil environs. That is why no foreign visitor would leave the west lake without feeling captivated by its poetic charms. A visit to the lake is tantamount to having a class in traditional Chinese culture.