City guide · 杭州 · 南宋称临安

Hangzhou

Capital of the Southern Song and West Lake: the lake of Bai Juyi, Su Dongpo and Lady White Snake

Photo: Y Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0

Hangzhou lies at the southern end of the Grand Canal, with West Lake surrounded by hills on three sides. The Bai and Su causeways on the lake honour two great poets who served as local officials here, the Leifeng Pagoda is tied to the legend of Lady White Snake, and the village of Longjing west of the lake grows a famous tea. Nearby Wuzhen is a classic Jiangnan water town.

History

How the city came to be

Hangzhou became a county in 221 BC and was capital of the Wuyue kingdom in the Five Dynasties period. From 822 to 824 Bai Juyi, as prefect of Hangzhou, built dykes and managed West Lake. In the Northern Song, Su Shi twice held office in Hangzhou, dredging West Lake and building the Su Causeway. In 1132, after Jin armies swept south, the Southern Song chose Hangzhou as its temporary capital, Lin'an, until Mongol forces entered in 1276. The Leifeng Pagoda, built in 975 by the Wuyue king Qian Chu for his consort Huang, collapsed in 1924 and was rebuilt in 2002. Today Hangzhou has three World Heritage Sites: the West Lake Cultural Landscape, the Grand Canal and the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City.

221 BCBecame a county
822Bai Juyi, as prefect of Hangzhou, built a causeway and managed the lake
975The Leifeng Pagoda was built
1132The Southern Song made Hangzhou its temporary capital, Lin'an
1924The Leifeng Pagoda collapsed (rebuilt in 2002)
2011The West Lake Cultural Landscape became a World Heritage Site

Stories

Stories of the city

Legend · Dongpo pork

A pot of pork from Su Shi's exile in Huangzhou

Legend has it that after the 'Crow Terrace Poetry Case', Su Shi was banished to Huangzhou and, living in straitened circumstances, worked out a way of slow-braising pork. The dish was later adopted and refined by the people of Hangzhou — capital of the Southern Song — and became Dongpo pork, named after him. The story is hard to verify, but Su Shi was indeed a famous gourmet and also served as a local official in Hangzhou.

Legend · West Lake, Hangzhou

Lady White Snake and the Leifeng Pagoda

The 'Legend of the White Snake' tells of the white snake spirit Bai Suzhen, who falls in love with and marries the scholar Xu Xian. Her true form is exposed by the monk Fahai, Xu Xian is lured to Jinshan Temple, and Lady White floods Jinshan to rescue her husband, before finally being imprisoned by Fahai beneath the Leifeng Pagoda beside West Lake. The Ming-dynasty story 'The Three Pagodas of West Lake' from the Jiajing era is considered the earliest form of the legend.

History · West Lake, Hangzhou

The Leifeng Pagoda that was 'stolen' to the ground

The Leifeng Pagoda was built in 975 by Qian Chu, King of Wuyue, for his favourite consort, Consort Huang, and 'Leifeng Pagoda in the evening glow' is one of the Ten Views of West Lake. Later, a folk belief arose that bricks from the pagoda could cure illness and protect pregnancies, and many people secretly dug out bricks to grind into powder at home; the base grew ever more hollow, and in 1924 the pagoda finally collapsed. Today's Leifeng Pagoda was rebuilt in 2002.

History · West Lake, Hangzhou

Two causeways left by two poets

In 822 Bai Juyi became prefect of Hangzhou; West Lake's old dyke had broken, the lake was drying up and the fields were parched, so he oversaw building a dyke to store water; today's 'Bai Causeway' is named in his memory, though the 'Duke Bai's Dyke' he actually built no longer exists. More than two centuries later Su Shi served in Hangzhou, dredged West Lake and used the silt to build a long causeway — the 'Su Causeway'.

People