View Fish at Flower Harbor

View Fish at Flower Harbor

A short ride northeast from Tiger Running Spring brings you to View Fish at Flower Harbor, located at the southwestern corner of West Lake. It borders Su Causeway to the east and lies adjacent to Little South Lake to the north and West Inner Lake to the south. Major attractions in the park include: Red Fish Pond > Peony Garden > Peony Pavilion. Situated slightly south of the park’s center, the Red Fish Pond is the main sightseeing hub. Its shores are naturally winding, and the pond features mounds creating small islands, connected by zigzagging bridges. Leaning on the bridge railings, visitors can look down to see thousands of golden-scaled red fish swimming in schools, while petals from the surrounding flowers drift on the water’s surface—a truly enchanting scene of “flowers caressing fish and fish nibbling flowers,” sure to stir anyone’s admiration. To the west of the Red Fish Pond lies the ingeniously designed Peony Garden. With gentle hills rising, the highest point is adorned with the Peony Pavilion, encircled by hundreds of peonies and tree peonies, living up to their reputation as the “king of flowers.” Beside the Peony Pavilion, along one side of a small path, stands an ancient plum tree. Beneath it, the pavement is inlaid with a pattern of the tree’s shadow made from black and white pebbles. The modern Confucian scholar Ma Yifu inscribed this area as the “Plum Shadow Slope.”

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During the Southern Song Dynasty, an imperial attendant named Yun Sheng built a private garden on the nearby Huajia Mountain. The garden was filled with lush flowers and trees, and a pond was dug to house colorful fish for enjoyment and leisure. It gradually became a popular spot frequented by visitors and was then known as Lu Garden. Because of its proximity to Huajia Mountain, it also came to be called Flower Harbor. When imperial painters created the series of paintings depicting the Ten Scenes of West Lake, this place was included among them.

Transportation: Take bus routes K4, 504, Tourist 1, 2, 3, 5, or Holiday 1, 4, 5, 7 to the “Su Causeway” or “Flower Harbor” stops, or take a West Lake cruise boat to reach Flower Harbor.

Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

West Lake Subdistrict: Nestled by the picturesque West Lake and the richly scenic Qiantang River lies a shining pearl—West Lake Subdistrict. Located in the core scenic area of Hangzhou’s West Lake tourism zone, it borders West Lake to the east, the Qiantang River to the south, Zhijiang National Tourist Resort to the west, and the High-Tech Development Zone to the north. The subdistrict covers an area of 48 square kilometers and governs nine administrative villages: Shuangfeng, Longjing, Jiuxi, Fancun, Maojiabu, Mangjuelong, Yangmeiling, Wengjiaoshan, and Meijiawu; two shareholding economic cooperatives: Jinsha and Nanshan; and six communities: Jingci, Santai Shan, Jiuxi, Qixialing, Jinshagang, and Lingyin. More detailed information about West Lake Subdistrict++