I Historical Vicissitudes of the West Lake

The picturesque West Lake is shielded on three sides by rolling green hills where the dark, wooded peaks rise one above another but are generally descending in height from southwest to northeast. The more scenic of the peaks along this range of hills include Mount Laohe, the Northern Peak, the Peak That Flew Here（Feilai Feng）, the Blue Dragon Hill, the Jade Spring Hill, the Marshalling Platform Hill, Hill of the City God, the Phoenix Hill, etc., lying in a row there one after the other, like a succession of emerald screens that give shelter to West Lake and form up a kind of magnificent backdrop that somehow accentuates the beauty of the lake scenery.

West Lake

The West Lake can be called a masterpiece of nature, emerging long long ago through eons of time out of what were once shallow seas whose surrounding hills then formed the contours of the beautiful landscape at the lake. Now that there is the lake and its partly encircling hills, the basic conditions are right there for what may be called“scenic gardens as special favors or nature”or more simply just scenic gardens.

Hills of different kinds of rock formation may differ in their scenic effects. Limestone hills are always full of picturesque caves and caverns. Ash tuff hills, owing to the fact that they are more vulnerable to erosion and weathering, especially at the protruding parts, often boast picturesque rock scenery that, while static in itself, somehow looks as though it were invested with inexplicable dynamic qualities. As to scenery related to waters, the City of Hangzhou and in especial the West Lake are known for the spectacular views of the many mountain springs, creeks and streams in the region. The Running Tiger Spring is typical of fissure water springs while Dragon Well and Cool Spring are karstic springs and Jade Spring is a pore water spring. Different geological structures result in different scenic features. In the rainy season, waterfalls are often seen cascading down the rocky face of cliffs, causing misty spray and froth at the foot and adding thus to the scenic attraction of the gardens on the West Lake.

The Peak That Flew Here has an elegant and delicate beauty all its own, a scenic attraction that owes its beauty to its weird, creased and many-layered look, its luxuriant growths of plant life, its queerly-shaped rocks and its many picturesque caves. The cliff-face carved inscriptions and sculptures here, such as the sitting Maitreya of Song Dynasty（960-1279）whose smiling look is always so reassuring, have an exhilarating and heartening effect on the beholder's mind.

At Running Tiger Spring, which is a scenic attraction also noted for its clear and pure water that has a sweetish aftertaste and is good for making tea, people often speak glowingly of their experience of making tea with the tea leaves of Dragon Well and the water from the spring. At Jade Spring where it is said that one may see fine misty drizzle even under a clear blue sky, the sight of groups of gleaming red fish darting about in the ponds is a great delight to visitors. Actually as early as in the Song Dynasty（960-1279）,“Enjoying the Sight of Fish at Play in the Waters at Jade Spring”had established itself as the name of one of the attractive sights of the West Lake, and in the Ming Dynasty （1368-1644）the famous calligrapher-minister Dong Qichang was so delighted at the sight that he gave it the name“Kingdom of Happy Fish”which he had inscribed on a horizontal board for the place. When visitors today sit on the benches near the railings and quietly watch and enjoy the sight of fish darting about, they will come to appreciate more deeply the poetic lines of “Happy fish and happy man/Crystal clear water and peace of mind” and feel more strongly the subtle charm of it all.