Hangzhou · Zhejiang
Hangzhou Anthology
Beside West Lake, the old capital of the Southern Song. No itineraries here — only lake and hills, remembered.
Jiuzhou Hangzhou
Autumn of Bingwu · issued online
Li Song, West Lake (scroll, detail), Southern Song · Shanghai Museum
Hangzhou How to read
Hangzhou How to read
How to read
Begin with the lake, walk toward the city
Hangzhou is a city of the lake. West Lake has hills on three sides and the city on the fourth — the hills are not steep but graceful, the water not deep but broad. The lake is Hangzhou’s eyes and brows, and also its measure: however large the city, that still is the lake.
Read Hangzhou along the lake. Begin with the lake itself — the Su and Bai causeways, the three pools mirroring the moon; then read the hills around it, and the tea slopes in the hills; then walk toward the city: Lingyin, Xixi, the canal, the Qiantang, Wu Hill; then read the human world the lake has raised: Longjing, silk, craft, the dishes of Hangzhou; and last, read the city’s history: Liangzhu’s earlier city, the founding of Wuyue, the Southern Song’s borrowed peace, and the human world after the capital was laid down.
This site sells no tickets and pushes no routes. If, after reading, a lake and a city take root in your mind, it has done its work.
The lake is Hangzhou’s measure
Prefectural city map · walls to the left, lake to the right, south at the top
Qianlong Gazetteer of Hangzhou Prefecture
目
HangzhouFour chaptersA district under the city
Listed under each part
Mountains & scenery
Mountains & scenery
West Lake, the hills around it, and the tea slopes in the hills.
West Lake · The hills around the lake · Tea hills · Water
Historic sites
Historic sites
Temple, wetland, canal, river, the hill in the city — five short lives.
Lingyin Temple · Xixi Wetland · The Grand Canal · The Qiantang River · Wu Hill
History & culture
History & culture
Longjing tea, silk, crafts still in the hand, Hangzhou dishes — the human world raised by lake and hills.
Longjing tea · Silk · Craft · Hangzhou dishes
History & culture
History & culture
From Liangzhu to the human world — how a city became a capital, and how it laid the title down.
Liangzhu · Wuyue · The Southern Song · Back to the human world
“West Lake compares to the fair Xizi — light or heavy make-up, always becoming.”
— Su Shi, “Drinking on the Lake, First Clear then Rain”