Top Ten Scenes of the West Lake-Leifeng Pagoda in Sunset Glow
Leifeng Pagoda in the story about White Snake is just located at the Xizhao Mountain at the southern bank of the West Lake. It, built by Qian Hongchu, a King of Wuyue State in Song Dynasty, for his concubine named Huang gave birth to a son, is a place for storing sutras. Because the hill where the pagoda stands is called as Leifeng, the later generations rename the pagoda as “Leifeng Pagoda”. Whenever the sun sets down, shadow of the pagoda will be across the sky and the pavilions and platforms present gold and green colors. Thus the name “Leifeng Pagoda in Sunset Glow” is obtained. During the reign of the Emperor Jia Jing in Ming Dynasty, the exterior gallery of the pagoda was burned down by Japanese pirates, and the bricks at the foundation of the pagoda were stolen by superstitionists, which causes the pagoda collapse on September 25, 1924.
On December 26, 2000, the reconstruction project of Leifeng Pagoda was formally laid the foundation. The new Leifeng Pagoda, built at the former address of Leifeng Pagoda, is 71 meters high and of five facades and eight layers. It is enclosed by mountains on the sides and faced with lake on the other, which is really a magnificent view. In order to effectively protect the underground precious relics, the ancient pagoda relics is covered with glass ceilings, which transforms the ancient pagoda into a new one and the new pagoda manifests the ancient one, being the first example in the Chinese ancient pagoda relics in-situ conservation in the whole country. The beautiful scenery of Leifeng Pagoda in Sunset Glow returns to the earth again.