World Heritage Identification Number: 1334
World Heritage since: 2011
Category: Cultural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇨🇳 China
Continent: Asia
UNESCO World Region: Asia and the Pacific
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The Enchanting West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou: A UNESCO World Heritage Site
The West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011, offers a captivating blend of human ingenuity and natural beauty that has inspired generations of poets, scholars, and artists for over a millennium. This enchanting landscape, situated to the west of the historic city of Hangzhou, lies south of the Yangtze River.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
The West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou, comprising the West Lake and the hills surrounding its three sides, has inspired famous poets, scholars and artists since the 9th century. It comprises numerous temples, pagodas, pavilions, gardens and ornamental trees, as well as causeways and artificial islands. These additions have been made to improve the landscape west of the city of Hangzhou to the south of the Yangtze river.
The West Lake has influenced garden design in the rest of China as well as Japan and Korea over the centuries and bears an exceptional testimony to the cultural tradition of improving landscapes to create a series of vistas reflecting an idealised fusion between humans and nature.
Encyclopedia Record: West Lake
West Lake, also known as Xihu and by other names, is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, China. Situated to the west of Hangzhou's former walled city, the lake has a surface area of 6.39 km2 (2.47 sq mi), stretching 3.2 km (2.0 mi) from north to south and 2.8 km (1.7 mi) from east to west. In the lake are four causeways, three artificial islands, and Gushan, the only natural island. Gentle hills surround the lake on its north, west, and south sides, with the Leifeng and Baochu pagodas standing in pair on the south and north banks. Several famous temples are nestled in the mountains west of the lake, including Lingyin and Jingci Temples.Additional Site Details
Area: 3,322.88 hectares
(iii) — Unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition
(vi) — Directly associated with events or living traditions
Coordinates: 30.2375 , 120.1408333333
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© Louisa Salazar, CC BY-SA 3.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
