West Lake Scenic Area Music Fountain

This guide to the West Lake Scenic Area Music Fountain in Hangzhou follows 632 underwater nozzles that spent seventeen years, from 2003 onward, throwing jets and mist every night without anyone checking what the lake water was doing to them. When the fountain finally shut down in January 2020, engineers pulled up cables and pumps to find aquatic plants grown straight through the wiring and frequency changers corroded past saving. You'll hear what a years-long repair replaced underwater, and what returned to Park Number Three on Hubin Road once the work was done. Stand along the shore before the evening crowds gather for a closer view of the nozzles.