"There is heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below." That’s the popular old Chinese saying, and Marco Polo called Hangzhou the most enchanting city in all the world. Hangzhou was founded approximatly 2,200 years ago, and for the last 1000 years has maintained a reputation as one of China's most prosperous and renowned cities.

There are many beautiful sites make its beautiful scenery, such as the West Lake which is known for its panoramic scenery, weeping willow trees, flowering peach trees, rockeries, ancient stone bridges, and hills dotted with multi-tiered temple pagodas. West Lake is a very shallow, man-made lake, with an average depth of only 6 feet. West Lake was an historically important source of water for the local farmers, but when the dyke collapsed during the first century, West lake nearly dried out.

The Leifeng Pagoda is an octagonal, five-storeyed brick and wood structure that was originally constructed in 975. The Pagoda was built by the King of Wuyue Kingdom, Qian Hongchu, to commemorate the birth of his son by Huangfei, his favorite concubine.

During the Yuan Dynasty it was said of the Lei Feng Pagoda that it was "of ten thousand chi," and standing "aloft as if suspended in midair." During the 1600s, the Pagoda was destroyed by the Japanese, leaving only the brick skeleton. After repeated looting of the Pagoda's remaining artifacts, the building collapsed in 1924.

The Leifeng Pagoda was a national icon for the Chinese. In 1999, reconstruction efforts began. The Pagoda was completed in October, 2002, and provides a picturesque backdrop for West Lake and the surrounding hills.

The Bai Causeway is a dam which was built as a walking path connecting Broken Bridge on the north rim of the lake to Gu Shan, or "Solitary Hill," to the southwest. It returns west lake to its glory. In 1090 AD Hangzhou governor Su Shi (aka Su Dongpo) oversaw the dredging of West Lake, with the waste being used to construct a new causeway which is the Su Causeway, it reduced the silting up of the lake, Su Causeway is also lined with weeping willow, hibiscus and magnolia trees, and is interconnected by six stone bridges.

The six stone bridges along Su Causeway are the Dongpu or "eastern ford," Kuahong or "spanning rainbow," Suolan or "locking the waves," Yingbo or "reflecting the waves," Wangshan or "looking at distant hills," and Yadior "causeway ballast." The vistas along the causeway have been romanticized in the local saying "Spring Dawn on the Su Causeway."