West Lake, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
苏堤 · Sūdī
A road 2.8 kilometres long across the whole of West Lake from south to north, made in 1090 of the mud and weeds dug out of the lake by order of the poet Su Shi. Six stone bridges let boats through. In spring it is the first of the lake's Ten Scenes.
Photo: zhiyin586@163.com, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
You are on a long, straight, tree-shaded path just above the water, with lake on both sides. Ahead it rises over a small stone hump of a bridge and runs on, under willows and big plane trees, for as far as you can see. To the right the water stretches away to the city; to the left a quieter lake runs to the hills.
In 1090 the poet Su Shi, then governing Hangzhou, had the choked lake dug out and piled what came up into this road, so that people could cross the lake on foot. In the same years in Europe the pope was calling for the First Crusade.
Part of West Lake, Hangzhou. Also there: Bai Causeway, Solitary Hill, Yue Fei's Temple, Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, Leifeng Pagoda, Lingyin Temple.
The causeway, its bridges and the fish-pond park are free and open at all hours.
| Part | Ticket |
|---|---|
| The causeway and its six bridges | Free |
| Viewing Fish at Flower Pond | Free |
| Su Dongpo Memorial Hall | Free |
Su Shi knew the lake well. He had served here as deputy governor nearly twenty years earlier, and wrote some of his best poems about it. When he came back as governor he found half of it overgrown with water weed. He wrote to the throne that Hangzhou without the lake would be like a face without eyes, and was allowed to clear it.
The causeway has six stone bridges with single round arches, so that boats can still pass from one side of the lake to the other. From south to north they are Yingbo, Suolan, Wangshan, Yadi, Dongpu and Kuahong.
"It is a dyke to hold back water." It is a road across a lake, built to use up the dredged mud and to let people walk across.
"The trees are a thousand years old." The planting has been renewed again and again. The causeway was cut and neglected several times and restored in the Ming (1368–1644).
"You can walk it in twenty minutes." It is 2.8 kilometres. Without stopping it takes about forty minutes.
Walk from south to north, finishing at Yue Fei's temple and Solitary Hill.
At the south end, on Nanshan Road, a statue of Su Shi stands in a small garden, and beside it is a free memorial hall telling his life. From here Leifeng Pagoda is a short walk east.
Just west of the south end is Viewing Fish at Flower Pond, another of the Ten Scenes. It began as the private garden of a Southern Song (1127–1279) official, where a stream ran down from the hills into the lake. Today its pools are full of red and gold carp, and the park around them is free.
Near the fourth bridge, Yadi, is the pavilion with the tablet of Spring Dawn on the Su Causeway, the first of the Ten Scenes. Stand on the bridge in the early morning in April: mist on the water, willows, peach blossom, and the lake quiet on both sides.
黑云翻墨未遮山， 白雨跳珠乱入船。 卷地风来忽吹散， 望湖楼下水如天。
Black clouds like spilt ink, not yet covering the hills; white rain like leaping pearls bouncing into the boat. A wind sweeps over the ground and scatters it all; below Lake-View Tower the water is like the sky.
Su Shi, Written Drunk at Lake-View Tower on the 27th of the Sixth Month, 1072
Look left and right from any bridge. To the east is the big outer lake with its islands and boats. To the west is a narrower, quieter water, the West Inner Lake, with the hills behind. Before the causeway it was all one lake.
The last bridge, Kuahong, "Spanning Rainbow", brings you down to Beishan Road. Turn left for Yue Fei's temple, right for Xiling Bridge and Solitary Hill.
| Year | Here | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1071–1074 | Su Shi serves in Hangzhou as deputy governor | The Battle of Manzikert (1071) opens Anatolia to the Turks |
| 1090 | The causeway is built | Bologna's university dates from 1088; the First Crusade sets out in 1096 |
| 1127–1279 | Spring Dawn on the Su Causeway heads the Ten Scenes | Notre-Dame in Paris is begun (1163) |
| 1751 | The Qianlong Emperor makes his first tour of the south | The first volume of Diderot's Encyclopédie is published |
Films from official channels, played from YouTube. Nothing is loaded until you press play.
These are stories people tell about this place. They are legends, not history, and each one says where it comes from.
When the causeway was finished, the people of Hangzhou sent Su Shi pork and wine to thank him. He had the pork stewed slowly in wine and sent it back to the workers. The dish has been called Dongpo pork ever since.
Source: Hangzhou folk tale; Su Shi did write a short poem on stewing pork, but at Huangzhou, years earlier
Later, people who live here will be able to add the stories they grew up with, and say which of these they have heard.
Last checked 2026-11-12. Su Shi's own petitions of 1089–1090 and Chinese reference works; the causeway is free and has no ticket office.
Checked 2026-11-12
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