Over the past thousands of years, Hangzhou Wu Hill Scenic Area has collected a huge number of historic and cultural legacies as the development of this city. The whole Wu Hill is full of the ancient cultural and historic sites, especially the temples or architectural buildings of Buddhism, Taoism and folk worshiping idols. Traditionally, Wu Hill is an important part of Hangzhou West Lake Scenic Area, and also a display window of the glorious history and folk customs of Hangzhou. The remarkable buildings are Hangzhou City God Pavilion and Hangzhou Dongyue Temple.
Hangzhou City God Pavilion (Chenghuangmiao)
City God Pavilion is the landmark of Grand View of Wu Hil(吴山大观), one of the Eighteen Classic Views of West Lake Scenic Area. Hangzhou City God Pavilion is the fourth most famous tower of Jiangnan region. On the right side of City God Pavilion, it is the Memorial Temple of Zhou Xin, whose story has been narrated in article of Wu Hill Scenic Area. The origin of the City God Pavilion(Cheng Huang Ge,城隍阁) is quite culturally famous. Cheng and Huang respectively mean the city wall and the channel of outside of city. For praying for the security of the city, the relevant worshiping ceremonies, rites and activities appeared in the late period of Spring and Autumn. After the eras of Wei, Jin, South and North Dynasties, under the influence of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism The imagery of the city gods are mingled with the viewpoints of the Nemesis of Kindness and Evil, Rites and Moralities. Many famous or respected officials or officers used to be served as the city god after their death.
City God Pavilion of Wushan Scenic Area, also called Wushan Chenghuangmiao, is an archaic seven-floor pavilion together with the underground. It is the symbolized building with a height of 41.6 meters. The whole pavilion is quite luxurious and featured of the architectural styles of Yuan and Ming Dynasties. It is the best site to view the places of interests of Hangzhou like the rivers, hills, lake and towns. The main top of the City God Pavilion is a cucurbit-style tip, and four sub-tops are the sculptures of phoenix. And the whole pavilion looks like a group of soaring phoenixes, also the sacred buildings of the fairyland. The second floor of the City God Pavilion is highlighted with a couplet written by Xu Wei(徐渭, a great poet, littérateur, calligraphist, painter and playwright of Ming Dynasty):
八百里湖山知是何年图画- The 800-li lakes and mountains can tell when the landscape was painted
十万家烟火尽归此处楼台- Tens of thousands of average homes owe all they have to this pavilion
The ground floor shows a huge wooded and colorized picture of Social Lifestyle in Downtown Hangzhou of South Song Dynasty, and on the opposite of this picture is a series of displays exhibiting historic celebrities’ profiles of different dynasties in Hangzhou and ten folk fairy tales. From the third floor to the top, there are the view sites with the excellent leisure service equipment.