Amazing scenery of West Lake after heavy snow

APD NEWS

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By APD writer Zu Li

The eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, a popular tourist destination, embraced its first heavy snow this year on Jan 25.

Rare snow created picturesque scenes of the landmark attraction West Lake, captivating a stream of visitors.

Forecasters said this is the biggest snowfall in the city since 2008, with about 12cm of accumulated snow in most areas as of Jan 27. The snow continued for seven days, but it has turned to be a sunny day.

Lingering Snow on the Broken Bridge, the most unusual scenery among the best ten scenes of the West Lake, created much excitement among sightseers.

The single-arch bridge was covered with white snow, with mottled stone balustrades faintly visible. Seeing from a distance, the bridge appeared to be broken because the snow on the sunny side of the bridge melts first, while the snow on the shady side still lingers.

A large number of photographers are keen to snap the rare phenomenon.

Take a bird's-eye view of the West Lake. After heavy snow, Yuhuwan has turned into a landscape painting. Looking ahead, the Yang Gong Causeway nearby the Yuhuwan was also decorated with white snow. Icicles coated branches of tress along the bank.

What a powder makeup jade puzzle world, spectacular and beautiful!

The small boats anchored at the pier, lying in the lake quietly, which seemed like the fallen leaves on the water. Next to the Yang Gong Causeway, the classical garden Guozhuang appeared even more quiet. A gull flew over the sky unexpectedly and broke the silence. The bird must to be attracted by the crystal-like fairytale world and made a special trip to the West Lake.

As a Chinese saying goes: ”Above is heaven and below is SuHang (Suzhou and Hangzhou).” This proverb implies that the beauty of Suzhou and Hangzhou is comparable to heaven.

Since ancient China, the West Lake always appeared in poems and songs. For example, the litterateur Su Dongpo in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) wrote a poem after visiting the West Lake. It says: “The West Lake looks like the fair lady at her best; Whether she is richly, adorned or plainly dress ”.

But after you see the beautiful scenery here, you will realize these words from 1,000 years ago are eclipsed by the real West Lake.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)