West Lake, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
三潭印月 · Sān Tán Yìn Yuè
An island in the middle of West Lake with a lake inside it, reached only by boat, and three small stone lanterns standing in the water off its south shore. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival candles are lit inside them and the lake fills with little moons. The view is on the back of China's one-yuan note.
Photo: 猫猫的日记本, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Your boat slides up to a wooden landing on a low green island. Inside, a zigzag bridge of stone and timber runs across still water between pavilions, and the island turns out to be a ring of land round four small lakes. At its south end, past a moon-shaped gate, three small grey stone towers stand in the open water, each like a gourd on a stalk.
The island was piled up from dredged mud in 1607, in the Ming (1368–1644). The first stone towers in the water were older: Su Shi set some up in 1090 to mark where no one was allowed to plant water chestnuts. In 1607 in Europe, the English were founding their first lasting settlement in America, at Jamestown.
Part of West Lake, Hangzhou. Also there: Bai Causeway, Solitary Hill, Yue Fei's Temple, Su Causeway, Leifeng Pagoda, Lingyin Temple.
The island is reached only by the island boats, whose fare includes landing and the trip back.
| Part | Ticket |
|---|---|
| Xiaoyingzhou and the three towers | Boat fare 55 or 70 yuan, landing included |
| Huxinting, the Mid-Lake Pavilion | Seen from the boat |
| Ruangongdun | Seen from the boat |
The three towers began as boundary markers. After dredging the lake Su Shi had small stone towers set in the water; inside the line they marked no one could plant water chestnuts and take over the lake again. His towers stood somewhere else. Today's three are later rebuildings, about two metres high.
Each is hollow, with five round holes evenly spaced in its ball-shaped body. On Mid-Autumn night candles are lit inside and thin paper is pasted over the holes, and the water fills with small moons.
The back of the one-yuan note of the fifth series of the renminbi shows this spot. From that angle only two towers can be seen.
"Three Pools is the three towers." The name is the whole view; the island they stand beside is called Xiaoyingzhou, "Little Island of the Immortals".
"The towers are Su Shi's." His have gone. The present ones were rebuilt centuries later, in the Ming or the Qing (1644–1912).
"You can walk there." It is in the middle of the lake. Only the island boats land there.
The island boats leave from piers all round the lake. Allow an hour on the island.
You land on the north side. From above, the island looks like the character 田, "field": a ring of land with a cross of bridges and dykes dividing the water inside into four. It is said to be an island in a lake with a lake in the island.
The zigzag bridge winds between small pavilions. The zigzags are meant to slow you down and turn you to a new view at every corner.
Among the pavilions are one named for the fishermen who once dried their nets here, and one named "Mutual Understanding of Hearts", from a Buddhist phrase about things understood without words.
Near the south shore stands the tablet of the Ten Scene, Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, in the Kangxi Emperor's hand.
From the south shore you see the three towers in the open water, spaced out in a triangle. Each has a round body with five holes and a gourd on top.
The best view of the three together is from above, from the top of Leifeng Pagoda on the south shore of the lake.
North of Xiaoyingzhou are the two smaller islands. Huxinting, the Mid-Lake Pavilion, was given its pavilion in the Ming. Ruangongdun, the smallest, is Ruan Yuan's mound of 1800, covered in trees. You see both from the boat; some boats stop at the Mid-Lake Pavilion.
| Year | Here | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1090 | Su Shi sets the first stone towers in the water | The First Crusade is six years away |
| 1552 | A pavilion is built on the middle island | Ivan the Terrible takes Kazan |
| 1607 | Xiaoyingzhou is piled up from dredged mud | The English found Jamestown in Virginia |
| 1800 | Ruan Yuan makes the third island | Napoleon crosses the Alps |
| 2004 | The view appears on the new one-yuan note | The European Union takes in ten new members |
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.
A black fish monster lived in the deepest part of the lake and ate the boatmen. Lu Ban, the master builder, tricked it into a stone pot, turned the pot upside down in the water, and set two more beside it. The three pots, with their holes, are the towers you see.
Source: Hangzhou folk tale
On the Mid-Lake Pavilion island the Qianlong Emperor wrote two characters, 虫二. Courtiers were puzzled until someone saw the joke: they are the characters for "wind and moon", 風月, with their borders taken off, meaning "wind and moon without bounds".
Source: Told on the island; the tablet's writer is not certain
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. Hangzhou city news of January 2025 for the boats and fares, and Su Shi's petition of 1090; the island has no website of its own.
Checked 2026-11-12
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