The Living Landscape of China
A city still livinginside a landscape painting.
For more than a thousand years, hills, water, temples, tea and poetry have been composed here as one continuous work.
The West Lake cultural landscape
Enter the long scroll
Ten ink points reveal the human stories held within the mountains and water.
Select an ink point to discover a place.
山水人文
One landscape, many centuries
West Lake is not just a lake.
It is a complete cultural system: wooded ridges framing water; causeways made from dredged earth; pagodas giving distance a measure; monasteries held in mountain folds; tea gardens still worked by hand.
Understand the landscape“The landscape still allows people to project feelings onto the scenery.”— UNESCO, West Lake Cultural Landscape
Ways into Hangzhou