Three Pools Mirroring the Moon
Hollow stone pagodas in a lake, lit each autumn to scatter candlelit moons across the water.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Three Pools Mirroring the Moon in Hangzhou opens with the optical trick these three hollow stone pagodas play under a full autumn moon, when someone rows out to light a candle inside each one. It traces them back to 1089, when the poet-official Su Shi sank the first three markers here to keep the newly dredged West Lake from silting up again, and to a 1607 magistrate who rebuilt them from memory after the originals vanished. Look down into the island's own inner lake and listen for how an engineering fix became a Mid-Autumn spectacle.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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Xi Lake
Willow-lined causeway of packed lake silt, built by thousands of dredging laborers under a Song-dynasty governor.
苏堤
Willow and peach-lined causeway built from dredged lake silt, crossed by six arched stone bridges.
Baidi
Willow-lined lakeside walkway built from dredged silt to store water against drought, still crossed on foot today.
六和塔
Octagonal riverside pagoda whose thirteen visible stories hide only seven inside, its brick base carved with over two hundred Song-era reliefs.
Leifeng Pagoda
Rebuilt lakeside pagoda standing over the ruins of a tower villagers dismantled brick by brick.
Yuguwan Scenic Area
Willow-lined lake cove and water-intake gate where filtered river water feeds back into the lake.