Slender West Lake: A place where the beauty of spring flowers and autumn moon lingers on

A World Cultural Heritage site and a national scenic area. The lake garden complex that formed during the Kangxi and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty combines the elegance of the south with the grandeur of the north. The winding clear lake is dotted with famous gardens and landmarks such as Xu Garden, Little Gold Mountain, Wuting Bridge, the White Pagoda, as well as the Twenty-Four Bridge and the Garden of Ten Thousand Flowers, presenting a scroll of traditional Chinese painting that unfolds before the eyes. The history of the Slender West Lake gardens is long-standing. In the Spring and Autumn period, King Fuchai of Wu built Han City and dug the Han Canal, already creating a water body; from the Sui and Tang dynasties, gardens were built successively; by the Qing Dynasty, during the southern tours of Kangxi and Qianlong, salt merchants competed to create gardens along the lake shore, resulting in a grand landscape of 'flowers and willows on both banks entirely depending on the water, a path of pavilions leading straight to the mountains' and 'thirty miles of pavilions, twenty-four scenic spots,' resembling a traditional Chinese painting scroll that unfolds in sequence. The Slender West Lake is about 5 kilometers long, with clear winding waters, connecting landmarks such as the Imperial Dock, Ye Chun, Juan Shi Dong Tian, Dahong Bridge, Xu Garden, Little Gold Mountain (Blowing Terrace, Moon Viewing, Chess Room, Wind Pavilion), Duck Villa, Lotus Bridge, Lianxing Temple, White Pagoda, Xichun Terrace, Twenty-Four Bridge, Garden of Ten Thousand Flowers, and Twin Peaks Cloud Stacks.