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Within Santanyinyue Islet, West Lake District, Hangzhou (杭州市西湖区三潭印月岛内)
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This is the largest of the three fairy islets in West Lake, known for a wonderful scene created from three pools surrounding three pagodas on the night of the Mid-autumn Festival.
Brief of Three Pools Mirroring the Moon
This is the largest of the three fairy islets in the Outer Lake of West Lake, known for a wonderful scene created from three pools surrounding three pagodas on the night of the Mid-autumn Festival. The islet offers the best place to enjoy a beautiful full moon at the mid lake.
The three gourd-shaped stone pagodas can be seen sticking about two meters above water. They assume an equilateral triangle with each side being sixty-two meters in length. They are all hollow and each of them has five equally-shaped small round holes on their bodies. On the night of the Mid-autumn Festival, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, local people love to ride boats there, put a lit candle into each of the pagodas and seal the holes with thin white paper. The candlelight reflected on the water surface resembles the reflection of the moon. Around the three pagodas you may find fifteen candles. But don’t forget about the actual moon in the sky and its reflection on the water. All together, therefore, there should be seventeen moons. At this moment, you’ll enjoy the reflections on the water around the pagodas, the clouds and the moon as they mingle with one another, while the candlelight, and the moonlight shed upon the lake enhancing each other’s beauty. With gentle ripples shimmering on the lake, there seems to be innumerable moons dancing in the water. What an enchanting scene.