Dear
Reader, welcome to the
West Lake, Hangzhou. If
you arrive by airplane,
before the touchdown you
must have already been
pleasantly surprised to
see a fascinating
picture, in which the
West Lake looks like a
sparkling pearl imbedded
in between a blue smudge
of mountains and a
metropolitan city, with
the zigzagging Qiantang
River floating by like a
silver ribbon.
Yes, the West Lake has
all along been extolled
as a sparkling pearl.
Legend has it that the
lake used to be an
auspicious pearl hewn
into its sparkling shape
by the Jade Dragon and
the Golden Phoenix but
it was later stolen by
the Mother Queen of the
West. When Jade Dragon
and Golden Phoenix
scrambled with the
Mother Queen, this pearl
accidentally fell onto a
land that was known as
Hangzhou.
This legend, which is
certainly worlds apart
from true history, sheds
precious light on the
fact that the West Lake
is a treasure that the
labouring people of
Hangzhou have brought
into shape through
numerous generations of
hard labour.
In remote antiquity what
is today’s Hangzhou and
the West Lake was a
lagoon, or a quiet arm
of the sea. In 210 BC,
when Qinshihuang was
passing by Qiantang
(present-day Hangzhou)
on his way to Huiji
(present-day Shaoxing)
to offer sacrifices and
libations to King Yu,
the wind rose and the
waves in the Qiantang
River surged so
violently that he had no
alternative but to have
his ship tethered to a
rock at the foot of the
Baoshi Mountain south of
the West Lake. Today,
the rock to which the
emperor fastened his
boat is still there.
Later, the Qiantang
River was silted up and
so was the mouth of the
lagoon, which appeared
and disappeared with the
flow and ebb of the sea.
It was not until the Sui
Dynasty that a lake took
shape. The lake was
first known as Wulinshui
Lake, and later renamed
Qiantang Lake. It
finally assumed its
present name after the
city of Hangzhou was
moved from the Lingying
Mountain to the Phoenix
Mountain, with the lake
situated in the west .
Su Dongpo, a celebrated
poet, likened the West
Lake to Lady Xizi, and
so the lake became also
known as the Xizi Lake.
Despite its beautiful
name, for a long period
of time the West Lake
was nothing but a
natural reservoir that
provided water for
irrigating the farmland.
This fact was borne out
by a poem the famous
Tang poet Bai Juyi wrote
for the local people
upon leaving Hangzhou
after his tenure as a
local official had
expired:" As I bid
farewell to you all, I
have have nothing but to
leave behind a lake full
of water in case you
come across a year of
crop failure." |