A rain shower passes over West Lake, softening the hills and leaving the city pale across the water. Willows lean towards the shore. A causeway carries a line of footsteps out into the lake.
For generations, people have given this landscape names, poems and stories. A bridge recalls an umbrella shared in the rain. A pagoda holds the memory of a white snake who wished to live as a woman. Along Su Causeway, the name of a poet has become part of the way across the water.
The lake beyond the view
West Lake lies in Hangzhou, in eastern China, with hills on three sides and the city on the fourth. Its islands, planted shores and long embankments took shape through centuries of human care. The famous view is also a place people made and continue to live around.
Beyond the shore, paths enter wooded valleys and tea-growing hills. The scale changes quietly: from a lake to a temple courtyard, from a hillside to a single leaf opening in a glass.