Leifeng Pagoda, Hangzhou

On 25 September 1924, Leifeng Pagoda gave up and fell down. Locals had spent years prying bricks out of its base, convinced they warded off illness and helped silkworms thrive, until the tower that had watched over West Lake since 977 AD collapsed into rubble. What you climb today on Sunset Hill is a 2002 rebuild in coloured copper over a steel frame, raised directly above the excavated stump of the original, and the site is honest about that layering: the Song-era brick foundation sits under glass at the base, coins left by visitors glinting between the ruins.

The snake under the tower

Every Chinese visitor arrives knowing the other reason this pagoda matters: in the Legend of the White Snake, the monk Fahai imprisons the snake spirit Bai Suzhen beneath it, and the tower's collapse was popularly read as her release. Gilded relief carvings inside retell the whole romance floor by floor. When the underground palace was opened during the 2001 excavation, archaeologists found a gilt-silver stupa said to hold a hair relic of the Buddha, which did nothing to quiet the site's mythology.

The visit itself

This is the least strenuous climb on West Lake: outdoor escalators carry you up Sunset Hill and a lift serves the upper floors, so grandparents manage it comfortably. Work upward past the ruins and the carvings to the top gallery, where the payoff is the widest south-shore panorama of the lake, the Su Causeway drawing its straight green line across the water and the city hills stacked behind. Sunset is the hour to aim for; "Leifeng Pagoda in Evening Glow" has been one of the canonical Ten Scenes of West Lake for centuries, and the tower lights up as the lake goes gold. An hour is enough, ninety minutes if you linger.

Hours, tickets and booking

As of 2026 the pagoda keeps long seasonal hours: 8:00 to 17:30 in winter, stretching to 19:00 in spring and 20:00 from May through October, with ticket sales stopping shortly before closing. Admission is a standard scenic-area ticket rather than a big-ticket entry; children under 1.2 metres go free, with reduced tickets for taller children and visitors over 70 with ID. You can buy at the gate or reserve ahead through the pagoda's official WeChat account, worth doing on holiday weekends when the escalator queue builds.

Getting there

City buses along Nanshan Road stop at Jingsi (Jingci Temple), directly opposite the entrance; from the metro, ride Line 1 to Longxiangqiao and continue by bus or a short taxi along the lakeshore. Walking the southern shore from the Su Causeway takes you there at West Lake pace, and sightseeing boats cross from the northern side. Jingci Temple sits next door, so the two combine into one relaxed late afternoon that ends at the top of the tower for dusk.

The photo everyone wants

The classic long-lens shot of the pagoda floating above the treeline is taken from the opposite shore, around the Broken Bridge on the north side. From the tower itself, shoot the causeway and lake instead; the pagoda is the one thing you cannot photograph while you are standing on it.