Hangzhou Hupao Spring

Hangzhou Hupao Spring

Hangzhou Hupao Spring

“Hupao” refers to Hupao Spring, located within Dinghui Chan Temple on Daci Mountain. The name “Hupao” originates from the “Dream of the Spring.” Legend has it that Xingkong, a renowned Tang Dynasty monk, planned to build a temple here but later intended to relocate due to a shortage of water. One night, in a dream, he received a divine message: “There is a Youth Spring on Mount Heng in Nanyue; I shall send two tigers to move it here.” The next day, indeed, two tigers were seen digging the ground to form a spring, from which water gushed forth. Hence, the name “Hupao Dream Spring” was born.

Hupao is hailed as the “Third Best Spring Under Heaven,” and the joy of visiting “Hupao” lies in experiencing the spring. From listening to the spring, viewing the spring, tasting the spring, testing the spring, to dreaming of the spring, visitors are naturally drawn into a vivid, enchanting, and otherworldly realm. Upon entering the mountain gate, the clear spring water makes a sound beneath your feet like the plucking of silk strings, resembling the music of a pipa with drops falling on a jade plate. Hupao Spring is a fissure spring formed by underground water flowing through the joints and gaps of rocks. It seeps out from quartz sandstone — a rock so hard that even common acids cannot dissolve it. The spring water is pure, with low total mineralization and high levels of the radioactive rare element radon, making it a high-quality natural drinking mineral water suitable for consumption and offering considerable health benefits. It is thus hailed as one of the “Two Wonders of West Lake,” alongside Longjing tea.

“Hupao” is also the burial place of the widely known legendary figure “Ji Gong.” The “Ji Gong Hall” and “Ji Gong Pagoda Courtyard” are located here. The modern art master Li Shutong became a monk here, and the Memorial Room of Master Hongyi is also a major attraction.

Hupao has been fully renovated, restoring the Ji Gong Pagoda Courtyard and the Arhat Hall, and featuring vivid sculptures of the “Dreaming Tiger” and reliefs depicting legends of Ji Gong. In the poem by Song Dynasty’s Su Dongpo praising Hupao Spring, there is a famous line: “The Taoist does not begrudge the water before his steps, lending it to me in my gourd for a carefree sip.”