Collections of Hangzhou West Lake Museum

West Lake is so beloved by the Hangzhou people that a museum was constructed to display its postcard-perfect natural scenery, irresistible charm, and enduring cultural heritage. Situated in the south part of King Qian's Temple, West Lake Museum features a fantastic array of cultural and historical portraitures representing Hangzhou, and is a great place to head before hatching any travel plans around this city.

Decorated with photos, models, artifacts and replica scenes, it offers a mesmerizing visual introduction to the top sports dispersed around West Lake. It also functions as a tourist service center and a repository of literature and scientific works devoted to West Lake.

West Lake Museum's modern design and amazing displays render the otherwise overexposed material vivid and engaging. You can experience a history lesson in its 3-D stereoscopic cinema. All the introductions are bilingual: Chinese and English, enabling you to learn which birds once lived around the West Lake, which flowers once blossomed around, which famous people once lived in Hangzhou, and what they have left behind.

Collections:

Southern Song Dynasty Official Kiln Yuhuchunping Vase (Unearthed from Laohudong Kiln Site)

The vase is 22.2 cm tall, with a mouth 5.6 cm in diameter and a base 8.5 cm.

It features an open mouth, rounded lips, a thin neck, sloping shoulders, a slightly pendulous belly, and a circular base. Its dark gray layer is relatively thin, while the vase body is firm. Gray celadon glaze was applied to the vase. The glazed surface is bright and transparent, with sparsely scattered cracks. The exposed vase body at the circular base is purplish-gray.

Yue Kiln Celadon-Glazed Saucer with Ripple Patterns

(the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms—the Northern Song Dynasty)

Produced by Yue Kiln in Zhejiang province between the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and the Northern Song Dynasty, the saucer is petal-shaped and carved with water plant-like patterns. A raised platform protrudes from the center of the saucer to support a cup or plate. The top of the support is decorated with a geometric pattern of connected beads, and its walls are covered with lotus petal patterns. There are six concave lines on the walls of the base that connect with the edges of the base. The design is elaborate and distinctive in shape. The whole is covered with a celadon glaze, blue-green like lake water, moist and even.

"West Lake Travel Records" in Eighteen Volumes

The book has three carving copies from the Ming Dynasty. Among them, the Yan Kuan carving copy from the twenty-sixth year of the Jiajing Period of the Ming Dynasty is the first carving copy.

This copy features ten lines in half a page and twenty characters in one line, which is strictly consistent with the description in "Catalogues and Title Index of Chinese Ancient Books and Rare Editions". It was the first copy of the book and has stood the test of time for more than 400 years, so it remains precious, albeit damaged.