Hangzhou West Lake Museum

Hangzhou West Lake Museum

The Hangzhou West Lake Museum is a patriotic education base.

The Hangzhou West Lake Museum is China's first thematic museum dedicated to a lake. Located on the picturesque shores of the West Lake, it covers an area of 22,480 square meters. Most of the building extends underground, seamlessly blending with the surrounding lake and mountain scenery. The museum integrates four major functions: exhibition display, West Lake studies research, West Lake literature archives, and visitor services. It officially opened to the public on October 1, 2005.

To support West Lake's bid for World Cultural Landscape Heritage status, the museum was closed in February 2009 to enrich and adjust its exhibits. It reopened on October 1, 2009. The revamped museum significantly expanded its floor space from 7,920 to 8,500 square meters. The updated exhibits closely align with the West Lake heritage bid, comprehensively showcasing the lake’s integrity and authenticity as a cultural landscape heritage site. Rich historical materials and artifacts underscore West Lake's universal value. In September 2010, the museum hosted experts from UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre for an on-site evaluation of West Lake’s bid, earning their strong affirmation. It made a significant contribution to West Lake’s successful inscription as a World Cultural Landscape Heritage site.

Opening hours: 8:00–17:00, open all year round.

Exhibition Display

The museum’s exhibition halls are divided into six major sections: the Introductory Hall, Overview of West Lake, Historical Dredging and Landscape Formation of West Lake, Named Scenic Spots of West Lake, West Lake Culture, and Spiritual Homeland. Visiting the West Lake Museum allows you to not only see the lake’s unique combination of landscapes and rich historical relics but also experience the profound cultural heritage behind these sights from a fresh perspective, sharing the aesthetic resonance that West Lake evokes.

Introductory Hall: A panoramic sand table of West Lake intuitively presents the overall layout of "mountains on three sides and the city on one," while a massive curtain of raindrops over West Lake creates a poetic, misty ambiance.

First Exhibition Hall: Nature’s Canvas — Overview of West Lake

This section provides a general introduction to West Lake’s geographical location, showcasing the material foundation of its cultural landscape through its mountains, waters, ecology, and overall layout.

Highlights of the Exhibition:

1. Microscope Observation of West Lake Water Samples

Observe the types and activity of microbial communities through a high-powered microscope. The images are also transmitted to a connected video display, allowing bystanders to see the observations clearly.

2. Crystal Ball Observation of West Lake Rock Specimens

Our museum pioneered this exhibition technique in China: visitors peer into a crystal ball to view imagery depicting the geological history of rocks, as if a magician were exploring the past through an enchanted orb.

Second Exhibition Hall: The Art of Dredging — Historical Dredging and Landscape Formation of West Lake

This section chronicles the continuous efforts of Hangzhou residents to dredge and modify West Lake for survival and development, illustrating the inseparable bond between the city and the lake. It vividly demonstrates the enduring human-lake interaction that persists to this day.

Highlights of the Exhibition: Prop Book Linked to Electronic Screen

As visitors flip through a prop book on dredging history, a scanner reads the barcode on the corner of the page, triggering the electronic screen to play corresponding dredging videos. This brings history vividly to life through sound and imagery.

Third Exhibition Hall: Poetic Vistas — Named Scenic Spots of West Lake

This section poetically showcases the origin and legacy of the "Ten Scenes of West Lake," the representative work of the ancient Chinese scenic design concept known as "named scenic spots." It offers a richly illustrated chapter on the finest elements of West Lake’s landscape.

Highlights of the Exhibition: Multi-Touch Interaction for West Lake Scenery

Visitors can explore introductions to the Ten Scenes of West Lake via interactive touch tables. This marks the first use of such technology in a Chinese museum, transforming audiences from passive observers to active participants. The multi-user functionality makes it engaging and fun, allowing multiple visitors to share the dynamic beauty of West Lake simultaneously.

Fourth Exhibition Hall: Cradle of Culture — Historical and Cultural Sites of West Lake

This section interprets the cultural significance of West Lake through various lenses, including religion, filial piety, reclusion, book collecting, and literary arts. It highlights the lake’s vital role as a "spiritual homeland."

Highlights of the Exhibition:

1. Multi-Scene Settings

Vivid dioramas such as Su Shi and Biàn Cái having tea, Yue Fei’s mother tattooing his back, and a model of the Wénlán Pavilion bring to life some of the representative cultural elements of West Lake.

2. The Dreamlike Theater of "The Legend of the White Snake"

The story of "The Legend of the White Snake" has been passed down through the ages. The theater interprets this classic tale using ink-wash painting—an art form that also embodies Chinese cultural elements—bringing this timeless legend to life through modern technology and showcasing it in a spectacular way.

Exhibition Hall 5 (Second Floor): Spiritual Homeland – Poetic West Lake

For thousands of years, West Lake has been a sacred place where people find aesthetic pleasure and spiritual solace. The second-floor exhibition hall uses a wealth of historical poems, paintings, and calligraphy about West Lake to fully demonstrate that the landscape of West Lake has long been a true “spiritual homeland” for China’s cultural elite and a “heaven on earth” yearned for by people of all walks of life throughout history.

Highlights of the Exhibition:

1. Electronic Flipbook of West Lake Literature

Using an electronic interactive flipbook format, it resembles reading a real book. As you wave your hand, the projected pages turn one by one, allowing visitors to freely explore the vast ocean of West Lake poetry and prose.

2. West Lake Woodblock Printing

Selected views of the Ten Scenes of West Lake and important historical and cultural heritage sites are made into woodblocks, enabling visitors to participate in the printing process themselves and take home souvenirs. This is a vivid revival of the historically renowned woodblock printing techniques of West Lake.

3. Hand-Painted West Lake

After viewing the exhibition, the West Lake Museum offers visitors a creative space. Here, you can use your fingers to freely paint your own unique vision of West Lake.

Featured Collections

The West Lake Museum has long been dedicated to collecting historical documents and precious cultural relics closely related to West Lake. The numerous artifacts and historical materials showcase the depth and richness of West Lake culture. Items such as ancient copper coins unearthed from beneath West Lake, gilt bronze dragons from the Five Dynasties Wuyue Kingdom, the Ming Dynasty’s "West Lake Bamboo Branch Collection," the Qing Dynasty Kangxi-era polychrome "Leifeng Sunset" plate, the Qing Dynasty Kangxi-era blue-and-white porcelain vase depicting West Lake scenery and the Goddess of Mercy, and the Qing Dynasty Qianlong-era scroll painting of the West Lake Imperial Summer Palace all reflect the evolution of West Lake and highlight its literary and artistic achievements. These are displayed in this exhibition.

Social Education

The West Lake Museum is a provincial-level patriotic education base. Focusing on youth education and local culture education, it organizes a wide range of social educational activities and has established partnerships with Zhejiang University and many other primary, secondary, and tertiary schools across the province, as well as with district education bureaus and youth activity centers. The museum’s exhibitions take full account of the needs of young students, emphasizing participatory and interactive display methods. In line with its unique characteristics, the museum has successively launched a series of activities including "Treasure Hunt," "Film and Television Education Base," "Getting Closer to West Lake," "West Lake Landscape Woodblock Printing," and "Happy Camp at the West Lake Museum"—making it a beloved second classroom for young people.

Further Reading:

· National First-Class Museums of China

· National Second-Class Museums of China