We all know that West Lake of Hangzhou is beautiful, but West Lake is more beautiful in autumn. After Frost’s Descent, maple leaves turn orange while pines and cypresses are still green, which gives the West Lake all different levels of colors.

Picture Source: Baidu

Speaking of West Lake, its origin makes people curious. There have been many legends and fairy tales about it. Legend has it that long time ago, the Jade Dragon and Silver Phoenix found a piece of white jade on an island by the Milky Way. They spent many years making the jade into a beautiful and bright pearl. Wherever the light of the pearl shined, trees turned green and flowers went into full bloom forever there. Later, this was found out by the Queen Mother of the West, who wanted the pearl and sent her troops to steal it. The Jade Dragon and Silver Phoenix went to ask for the pearl back but the Queen Mother would not give it back. During the ensuing scramble, the pearl fell down to man’s world and became a lake--West Lake, in Hangzhou. Then the Jade Dragon and Silver Phoenix came to man’s world too, following the pearl, and became two mountains protecting the lake forever. These two mountains refer to the Yuhuang (Jade Emperor) Mountain and Fenghuang (Phoenix) Mountain by West Lake.

The name “West Lake” was used as early as in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Before the Tang Dynasty, the lake had many other names, such as Mingsheng Lake, Jinniu Lake and Qiantang Lake. When Su Shi, a great poet of the Northern Song Dynasty, came to visit the lake and exclaimed that it was as beautiful as Xi Shi (one of the four most famous beauties in ancient China), some people thereafter referred to West Lake as “Xizi Lake”.

Source: www.weather.com.cn & Baidu Baike

Translated by Chen Yanqiu

Editor: Zhang Min & Wen Yi