Top Ten Scenes of the West Lake-Three Pools Mirroring the Moon
Three Pools Mirroring the Moon Island stands like three leg of a tripod with Mid-lake Pavilion and Ruangong Pier and they are addressed as “Three Islands in the Lake” together, just like the three islands of Penglai in the legend of ancient China, so the island is also called as Xiaoying Island. Overlooking the whole Xiaoying Island, it is just like a huge Chinese character “田”. There are garden buildings like Kaiwang Pavilion, Tingting Pavilion, Jiushi Stone, Xianfang Platform, Yingcui House and mind-act-upon-mind Pavilion interspersed inside the Xiaoying Island. Green trees set off one another and flowers and trees are luxuriant and well-spaced. The willows at the bank of lake touch the wave and shadows of terraced houses reflect on the lake; and the whole garden is rich in the change of space levels, which forms the realm of “lake in lake”, “island in island” and “garden in garden”.
Three stone towers were built in the Daonan Lake, and according to the legend, they are built when Su Tung Po was in charge of dredging the West Lake (The present stone towers are those rebuilt in Ming Dynasty). What’s interesting is that the belly of tower is hollow, and five isometric round holes are arranged in order on the spherical body. When it is a night with bright moon, plaster a piece of thin paper on the hole opening and light the lighting in the tower, the hole shape will reflect on the lake and a lot of moons will be presented on the lake. Indeed, it is hard to tell which is real moon and which is false one, the formed night scene is fairly fascinating, so the name “Three Pools Mirroring the Moon” is obtained.