Yuguwan Scenic Area

This guide to Yuguwan Scenic Area in Hangzhou opens with an odd fact: the willow-lined cove quietly pumps in hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of river water a day to keep West Lake from silting over. You'll hear how the bay earned its old name, Egret Bathing Bay, for the herons that once preened here, and how decades of silt buried it so completely that farmers later planted crops where the birds had waded. The guide follows the 2003 project that reopened Yuguwan as one of the lake's intake gates, drawing river water through settling ponds nearby before it returns to the lake. Stand at the bend and watch that water slide in beneath the willows.