Three Pools Mirroring the Moon (Xiaoyingzhou)
Xiaoyingzhou, the largest island in West Lake: piled up during Ming-dynasty dredging, with a grid-shaped garden layout of "an island in the lake and a lake in the island"; three stone pagodas stand in the water just off the island—the very scene on the back of the one-yuan banknote
Visitor info
- Opening hours
- 08:00-17:00
- Ticket
- Boat ticket CNY 55 (island landing included)
Price is indicative — final quote on inquiry.
Xiaoyingzhou, the largest island in West Lake: piled up during Ming-dynasty dredging, with a grid-shaped garden layout of "an island in the lake and a lake in the island"; three stone pagodas stand in the water just off the island—the very scene on the back of the one-yuan banknote. On Mid-Autumn night, the spectacle of three moons—"moon in the sky, moon in the water, moon in the pagodas"—reflecting one another is a marvel. Boat ticket CNY 55 (island landing included); boats depart from Hubin / Huagang piers; the trip takes about 1 hour; it is the only core West Lake island visitors can land on.
Getting there: Boat from Hubin / Huagang pier
Photos
More in Hangzhou
- Xixi National Wetland
Boat maze of reeds and water villages west of the city.
- West Lake
UNESCO lake of pagodas, causeways and arched bridges; boat or bike the shoreline.
- Lingyin Temple
Buddhist temple founded 326 AD amid grottoes of Song-era rock carvings.
- Longjing Tea Village
Terraced Dragon Well tea fields; tastings at family farms.
- West Lake Loop
A World Heritage Site (inscribed in 2011): an urban lake with misty hills on three sides and the city on the fourth, dredged in succession by two of its governors, Bai Juyi and Su Dongpo; Su Shi's verse "wishing to compare West Lake to the beauty Xi Shi" made it a byword for Eastern aesthetics
- Su Causeway & Bai Causeway
Su Causeway, 2.8 km long, was built from dredged silt when Su Shi dredged West Lake; six bridges span the lake, with peach trees and willows lining both banks—"Misty Willows over Six Bridges" is the top spring scene