West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou

Since the 9th century, poets and painters have made the West Lake at Hangzhou the very image of scenic perfection, and gardeners returned the compliment: causeways, artificial islands, pagodas, temples and pavilions were added over centuries to compose vistas of idealized harmony between people and nature. The lake's design language echoed through gardens across China, Japan and Korea. UNESCO inscribed the West Lake Cultural Landscape in 2011.