Leifeng Pagoda
Rebuilt lakeside pagoda standing over the ruins of a tower villagers dismantled brick by brick.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Leifeng Pagoda in Hangzhou begins before dawn in 977, as the king of the Wuyue Kingdom watches workers seal Buddhist scripture into the tower's bricks, built to celebrate his favorite concubine's pregnancy. It follows the tower through centuries as one of West Lake's ten classic views, and a nineteenth-century rumor that sent Hangzhou residents out at night with hammers and chisels to chip bricks from its base. By September 1924, the damage had gone too far for the tower to stand. The guide also traces how a nearby hill named Leifeng eventually gave the pagoda the name it carries today.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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