The West Lake Scenic Area

The beauty of Hangzhou lies in the West Lake.

Release time : 2016-09-13 15:10:29

source : WTCF

(Image source: www.hzwestlake.gov.cn)

The beauty of Hangzhou lies in the West Lake.

The West Lake is flourishing as it’s located in Hanghou; while Hangzhou is renowned for the beautiful West Lake. In ancient times, just as the poem said, “an Among the 36 west lake in the world, Hangzhou West Lake is the most attractive one”. The West Lake Scenic Area, centered in the West Lake, ranks as one of national parks of China firstly announced by the State Council; and it’s also one of the first top ten civilized scenic spots of China and National AAAAA tourist attraction. Surrounded by the mountains and filled with clear water, it has an area of about 60 km2, of which the lake occupies 6.5 km2.

On June 24, 2011, “Hangzhou West Lake Cultural Landscape” was listed in the World Heritage List in the 35th World Heritage Meeting. “Hangzhou West Lake Cultural Landscape” is mainly composed by the 6 elements: natural landscape distributed in the area of 3322.88 hectares, with the features of city integrated with lake, i.e. “mountains in three sides and city in one side”, landscape pattern of “Two dikes and three islands”, the titled landscape of “Ten Views of the West Lake”, the cultural relics and the characteristic plants. The landscape was formed in 9th century, shaped in 13th century, prospered in 18th century and developed till now. And the landscape has become better gradually in the process of continuous change through over 10 centuries, thus turning into the “distinguished oriental cultural lake” with abundant landscape elements, unique design, long history and profound culture. It’s a remarkable model that the Chinese cultural elites of the past upheld the Chinese landscape aesthetics theory of “unity of heaven and man” and “to abandon oneself to nature”, which displays the artistic style of “idyllic beauty” which has been