Up above there is heaven, and below there are Suzhou and Hangzhou. This is one of the most popular Chinese saying people often quote to describe the picturesque scenery of these two scenic cities of East China.

Hangzhou, the capital city of East China's Zhejiang Province, and one of the seven capitals (the others being Xi' an, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Anyang, Beijing, and Nanjing) in ancient China, is endowed with irritable charm and vigour as an ideal destination for tourists from home and overseas. Located at the southern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal 180 kilometres south of Shanghai. The city is the political, economic, cultural, and scientific research centre of this coastal province in East China. With a long history and a wealth of cultural relics, the city is a communications hub in East China. Besides railways, expressways and international airports, the Grand Canal and Qiantang River can connect the city with other parts of the world.

With a history of more than 2,200 years, Hangzhou is one of the cradles of China's civilization. Hangzhou used to be the capital of Wu and Yue kingdoms in the 10th century during the Five Dynasties period. It developed rapidly in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) to become the nation's cultural, economic and political centre in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). In the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), Marco Polo (1254-1324, Venetian traveller to the court of Kublai Khan) described it as the most graceful city in the world.

The City of Hangzhou is divided into six districts, five cities and two counties. It encompasses 16,847 square kilometres with a population of 6.16 million. Its major industries include textiles, machinery, metallurgy, chemicals, electronics, and food.

Hangzhou is one of the top 10 tourist attractions in China. It is famous for its surrounding hills and numerous beautiful scenic spots, especially the West Lake. Other tourist attractions include Pagoda of Six Harmonies, Soul's Retreat Temple, The Peak That Flew Here, Hangzhou Oriental Culture Park, the Newly-Built Leifeng Pagoda, Fuchun River, Xin'an River, the "ThousandIsland Lake," the rarely seen tide of the Qiantang River, and Tianmu Mountain.

West Lake

Hangzhou's fame is largely due to the picturesque West Lake. Lying in the west of the city, and surrounded by hills on three sides, the West Lake is 3.2 kilometres from north to south and 2.8 kilometres from east to west with a circumference of 15 kilometres. Its water surface encompasses 5.8. square kilometres, while the islands on the lake occupy 6.3 square kilometres. Its average depth of water is 1.55 metres, the shallowest is less than one metre deep, and the deepest being about 2.8 metres. Its storage capacity is between 8.5 million and 8.7 million cubic metres. The Su and Bai Causeways, both man-made, divide the lake into five separate lakes: the Outer Lake, the North Inner

Lake, the West Inner Lake, the Yue Lake, and the Lesser South Lake. There are scenes everywhere in around the West Lake. Apart from the ten scenic spots of Qian-Tang, eighteen attractions of the West Lake, the top ten famed attractions designated during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) are as follows: Spring Dawn at Su Causeway (the Su Dyke Enveloped in Morning Mist) , Autumn Moon Over the Calm Lake , Lotus in the Breeze at the Crooked Courtyard (a lotus spectacle at Quyuan) fIlI 1lJtJXI.1i1f, Three Pools Reflecting the Moon , Watching Goldfish in a Flowery Pond (Viewing Fish at Huagang Pond) ,Orioles Singing in the Willows , Snow Scene on the Broken Bridge (the Broken Bridge Cocooned under a Snow Mantle), Double Peaks Kissing the Sky , Evening Bell Ringing at Nanping , and the Lei Feng Pagoda in the Glow of the Setting Sun . Incidentally, China boasts as many as 36 west lakes, and the one in Hangzhou undoubtedly exceeds all its counterparts. Deep-forested hills embrace the lake on three sides resembling an amphitheatre except the east side where the downtown area is located. It is not hard to find peace and contentment around this beautiful lake, where nature goes through an amazing repertoire of changing moods that turn the picturesque waterways into shimmering avenues of enchantment. The climate is mild all the year round, so it is with joy that tourists come here to forget the hustle and bustle of the city. The splendid views along the lake, running from the east to west, are a never-ending delight for tourists. It is hardly surprising that tourists flock to the West Lake all the year round to enjoy the glorious scenery and warm sunny days. A 1,300-metre-Iong cross lake underwater tunnel was opened to the public on October 1, 2003.

The picturesque West Lake is well matched with the emerald surrounding hills where the Tiger Spring, the Dragon Well, the Jade Spring, the Rosy Clouds Cave, the Yellow Dragon Cave, the Lingyin (Soul's Retreat) Temple, and the Nine Brooks and Eighteen Dales can be found. Such scenic spots can still be found in Hangzhou area by going off the beaten track. There are many beautiful spots that don't get mentioned in books because they offer no exceptional sights or attractions. And that is part of what makes them special. A trip out to such a spot is very rewarding, and a meditative summer picnic on the green will provide an oasis of tranquillity in hectic day.

Autumn Moon Over the Calm Lake lies at the southeastern foot of the Solitary Hill. Built 300 years ago, the park is colourful with painted pavilions. A zigzag bridge leads to a stone platform almost level with the water, providing a view as though the tourist were stancling on the water-quite enchanting particularly with the moon shining on its shimmering water surface. Flowers are in bloom all the year round on the Solitary Hill. Crane Pavilion at the foot of the hill is lovely in spring with plum blossoms. It is said that in the tenth century there was a celebrated poet by the name of Lin Hejing who expressed his contempt for the corrupt officials by secluding himself on the hill while composing poetry, painting, cultivating plum trees, and raising a pair of cranes. When he passed away, all 360 of his cultivated plum trees withered and his two white cranes died, presumably of grief. Local people buried the cranes beside Lin's tomb and erected the Crane Pavilion. They also planted many more plum trees on the hill in his memory .

The site of the Xiling Seal-Engravers' Society at the west~rn foot of the Solitary Hill has noteworthy features. There are springs, ancient trees, bamboo groves, white magnolias, and red camellias as well. In 1903, the painter and engraver of noted W u Changshuo, and some friends established an art group specializing in the study of stone seal engraving, calling the Xiling Seal-Engravers'Society. The origin of seal-engraving art dates back more than 3,000 years. As early as in Neolithic times, people began to stamp designs on earthenware, the most primitive known form of seal engraving. Qinshihuang, first emperor of the Qin Dynasty who unified China in 221 BC, began using seals as symbols of imperial authority. One of his seals, made of fine jade with a knob in the form of a dragon, bore the inscription: "The emperor glorious and long-lived, the recipient of heaven's command." In the fourteenth century, a famous Ming-dynasty painter Wang Mian introduced stone into seal engraving since it is much easier to carve than metal or jade. Artists started designing and engraving seals themselves and the craft gradually developed into an art form. Through the years and years, many handicrafts were taken over by machines. However, seals are still made by hand. A machine cannot produce them. They have to be carved word by word. It is a three-in-one creation, meaning a combination of calligraphy, designing the word in a very limited space, and carving technique. Calligraphy style is the foundation of seal engraving. The scripts used for chops are often archaic, dating from the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 Be) to the Tang Dynasty (618-907). They are far different from contemporary handwriting. As for designing, it is something like the work of a painter and a general. Like a painter, you must arrange the characters, sometimes dozens on a space smaller than a matchbox, in a way that is beautiful and pleasing to the eye. Like a general with his soldiers you have to get your characters in order and make them look like a unit. In addition to name chops, people engrave famous poems, popular slogans, and sometimes words of noted persons. This ancient art form is as popular as ever in China now. The new generation of carvers will do even better work than their predecessors.

Many Chinese artists have long regarded seal engraving as the best incarnation of the spirit of the Chinese culture. They believe that such a rich culture can be embodied in the space of less than a square inch.

Seal engraving is an integration of limitation and infinity. Its physical space and spiritual content are not totally proportional. Its artistic language and means are very delicate, and abstruse. Under the engraving knives of outstanding seal cutters, points, lines, raises, concavity, scarcity, density, punching, and cutting have all become demonstrative elements in highly abstract terms.

Originally, a seal used to be the symbol of power, status and order of feudal societies in China. For instance, Su Qin (7-284 BC), an outstanding statesman during the Warring States period (475-221 BC) was once in charge of the seals of the prime minister of the six states. Historians deem them as the highest achievements of the statesman in his political career. However, through a long history of development, people began to pay more attention to the aesthetic values of seals and such carving has eventually evolved into a type of pure art in China.

Today, the art of seal engraving has not only become more and more popular among the Chinese people, but has also spread to Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States.

The Grand Canal

China's only waterway running from north to south is 1, 747-kilometre-Iong Beijing- Hangzhou Canal. It is 10 times the length of the Suez Canal (172. 5 kilometres in length, constructed in 1869) and 20 times that of the Panama Canal (81.3 kilometres in length, built in 1914). Although the Grand Canal is not so imposing and famous as the Great Wall, it embodies the superb wisdom of the Chinese nation. It is a testimony of the history of China.

Dug more than 2, 000 years ago, the Grand Canal has played an important role in China's development. The Great Wall of China was built as a barrier to block the entry of northern nomads and armies into the Middle Kingdom, but the Grand Canal was dug to link the north and south of China politically and economically and culturally as well in ancient times.

Joining five rivers-the Haihe, the Yellow River, the Huaihe River, the Yangtze River and the Qiantang River-the Canal has long served as a means of transportation. The sections of the Canal in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are still full of vitality. Vendors paddle their boats directly to households, shops and storehouses in local townships.

Located at the southern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the capital city of East China's Zhejiang Province poured some 4 billion yuan (US$ 482 million) into cutting water pollution. With a total length of 1,747 kilometres making it the world's longest, the famous canal runs right through downtown Hangzhou, in its last passage of 18.1 kilometres.

Built around 605 to 610 in the Sui Dynasty, the Grand Canal is the longest man-made water channel in the world. Beginning in Beijing, it runs through the Tianjin Municipality, North China's Hebei Province and East China's Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the Canal has been one of the most important transportation channels linking North and South China.

Returning Glory

By 2005, with the completion of the extension project of the Great Canal, Hangzhou will be accessible to ships with a tonnage of 500 and below. The extension project will connect Hangzhou with the world famous seaport Ningbo by linking a couple of rivers and waterways. The extended section is 252 kilometres long.

Near Haining in East China's Zhejiang Province is one of the magnificent and amazing sights of Nature in China. Scientists say the bell-shaped mouth of the Qiantang River near the city of Hangzhou helps form the not-to-be-missed "Haining Bore," which has a crest as high as 4 metres. International borewatching festivals have been held annually since 1994. During the festival tens of thousands of visitors go there to watch the spectacular view of the bore each year. In China there are four magnificent sights of Nature. The other three are a sea of clouds over Mount Huangshan , Anhui Province, the trees' rime fog (soft rime) in Jilin Province , and the sunrise at Mount Tai .

Pagoda of Six Harmonies

Pagoda of Six Harmonies is 60 metres high and was built of wood and bricks to subduing the bore in 1970. An octagon supported by 24 pillars, the pagoda has 13 upturned eaves, which become progressively narrower toward the top. Contributing to the pleasing contour of the structure, a spiral staircase leads to the top of the seven-storey pagoda, the ceiling of each storey carved and painted with figurines, flowers, birds and animals whose colours are fresh and refined. Viewed from a distance the pagoda appears to be layered, bright on the upper surface and dark underneath, a technique used in ancient Chinese architecture to alternate light and shade and clearly. delineate the pagoda for an attractive long-distance view. A panoramic view of the Qiantang River (totalling 410 kilometres and the drainage area being 42,000 square kilometres) and its bridge (construction of the bridge started on August 8, 1934 and was completed on September 26, 1937; the 1,322-metre-long bridge was designed by Mao Yisheng 0896-1989), a bridge expert; it is double-decked, with double railroad tracks below and a four-lane highway above) is afforded from the top. If tourists are on any of the three days after the Mid-Autumn Festival (the 15 th day of the 8 th lunar month), they will witness the spectacular Qiantang River Bore (one of the magnificent sights of Nature in China)when a huge wall of water rushes in with a thunderous roar. The roar of the high tides is answered by the beating of gongs and drums along the banks of the river, creating an occasion never to be forgotten .

Lingyin (Soul's Retreat) Temple

The name of Lingyin Temple or Soul's Retreat Temple comes naturally from its quiet surroundings. With deeply forested hills on three sides, the temple is really a hideaway. It is the largest and most resplendent temple in Hangzhou. Built during the Eastern Jin Dynasty some 1.600 years ago. the temple was ruined and rebuilt many times over the centuries. It has recently taken on a completely new look showing the original splendour. In the Hall of the Heavenly King seated in the centre is a statue of Maitreya, the fat-bare-bellied

Buddha with a smiling face. The walkway from this hall to the main hall, which contains the famous statue of Sakyamuni. founder of Buddhism. is paved as though carpeted with green flagstones. The magnificent 19-metrehigh statue is seated on a lotus flower amidst great red pillars and murals of a hundred cranes. Carved of camphor wood and gilded in gold, one foot of the statue measures 1.8 metres. Behind Sakyamuni is a colourful group-sculpture of 150 Buddhas representing an episode from the Buddhist scriptures. Another remarkable work of art is a sculpture of a Bodhisattva on the back of a whale on waves of the sea. Tourists know Chinese appreciate browsing among the scrolls on which are copied poems and couplets. One narrated of the celebrated litteratus and calligrapher of the Northern Song Dynasty Su Dongpo (1073-1101) handling a case while he was Prefect of Hangzhou . The story tells about the owner of a fan shop who was charged with non-payment of a debt. The accused explained that he could not pay because he had not been able to sell his wares owing to continual rain and cold weather. Su Dongpo took up his brush and painted such attractive pictures on twenty of the shop-owner's fan that they sold immediately, enabling the man to pay his debt at once. This story, true or not historically, indicates how deeds performed in the people's interest are cherished.

The Peak That Flew Here *

The Peak That Flew Here directly faces Souls' Retreat Temple. In about 326 in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), a Buddhist devotee came from India and insisted that this hill, 168 metres above sea level, resembled exactly one in his own country. He asked when it had flown to Hangzhou. To fortify his claim he said that the hill had a white monkey in a cave there. When recognized as The Peak That Flew Here. The hill is smaller and has more bizarre rocks and caves than those around it. It is also cut off from the other hills by a winding valley in which a stream flows. It is different too in having rocks of limestone rather than sand stone, as do the other hills.

One large cave in the hill can accommodate several hundred people.

Continuing erosion has gradually produced cracks in the roof letting in daylight. On The Peak That Flew Here are over 280 ancient stone sculptures dating between the 10 th and 14 th centuries (Five Dynasties, Song and Yuan dynasties). These are important examples of ancient sculptural art south of the Yangtze River.