Top Ten Scenes of the West Lake-Spring Dawn at Su Causeway
Su Causeway starts from the foot of Nanping Mountain in the south and stretches to Qixia Ridge in the north with a full length of nearly three kilometers. It was built by Su Tung Po, a famous poet in North Song Dynasty, when he acted as a chief executive in Hangzhou. During the term of his tenure, he was in charge of dredging the West Lake and building the Causeway by adopting the dug mud from the lake. In memory of the achievements of harnessing the West Lake by Su Tung Po, the descendents name it as Su Causeway. The long causeway, lying beside the West Lake, connects the North Mountain and South Mountain, which adds a fascinating vista line for the West Lake. In South Song Dynasty, “Spring Dawn at Su Causeway” was listed as the first of the top ten scenes of the West Lake, and it was addressed as “Misty Willow in Six Bridges” in Yuan Dynasty and listed into the top ten scenes of Qiantang, which is enough to see that it was popular with people since ancient times.
Spring Dawn at Su Causeway refers to that, as long as the cold winter passes, the Su Causeway is just like a messenger for telling us the approaching of spring, with green willows on its both sides, brilliant peach blossom shining and green waves of the lake as smooth as a mirror, shining upon the beautiful image of it, which makes us express limitless tender feelings. Nothing is more touching than the scene that the first ray of the morning sun begins to appear, a light breeze gently comes up at the sunset and the fine willow branches stretch or roll and float in the breeze. If you put yourself on the causeway, you may think that the whole scene is just like a dream or an illusion.