I spent 2 weeks in China a few months ago and had a chance to visit Hangzhou, a renowned city famous for its beautiful natural scenery. One of the popular places is West Lake (西湖), a name that I've heard many times both in historical dramas and music performances.

Being part of a tour group and a conversational mandarin speaker myself although not a very good one, I was able to understand most of what the tour guide was saying. Along the journey, he spoke a number of proverbs and one that stick to my head is the following:

生在苏州, 活在杭州, 吃在广州, 死在柳州

Which roughly translates to "Be born in Suzhou, live in Hangzhou, eat in Guangzhou and die in Liuzhou". The meaning behind the proverb is that for the most of ancient times, Suzhou has been renowned for its educated scholars, Guangzhou for its food delicacies, Liuzhou for its wooden coffins used for the resting of the dead. And Hangzhou had been a prosper and livable city with scenic landscapes.

The galery above contains some pictures that I took around the lake. I especially like the first one where the willow leaves hang from above against the background of hills and calm water. It feels peaceful.