Jiang Nan, the name Chinese called for the Yangtze River Delta region, is the powerhouse of Chinese intellectual, art and economy since ancient time, and the main cities of Jiang Nan, Hangzhou and Suzhou, are well known for their beauty under the famous proverb "In heaven there is paradise, on earth Suzhou and Hangzhou". Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, is celebrated by its landscape of West Lake or Xi Hu, the lake is decorated with arch bridges, zigzag pathways, causeways, mountaintop pagodas, lakeside pavilions, lotus ponds, carp pools, willow trees, bamboo gloves, etc., everything of classical Chinese landscape should be.

I visited the lake in summer 2011, the landscape was very beautiful liked Chinese painting; strolling around the lake and taking a boat to see the Small Yingzhou Island and its three small pagodas in the water were just relaxing and had many spots for good photo shooting while the misty cloud enchanted the beauty of the lake. My favorite area is located in the southwest area of the lake, Hua-Gang Gardens and Xi-Li Lake, the small area but the landscape is truly outstanding with many gorgeous pavilions, bright orange carp ponds, wandering peacocks, fantastic green lawns, lovely forest and countless beautiful trees under the shadow of Leifeng Pagoda.

In my humble opinion, West Lake is not an overrated tourist destination; the lake has major influence on landscape design in East Asia as gardeners want to duplicate or imitated the landscape element of the lake, as the result, similar landscapes can be found everywhere in China, or even within famous gardens in Japan and Korea, more similarity you see, more outstanding value of West Lake will be obvious, making West Lake to be another great World Heritage Site of China.