Discover Hangzhou
Quyuan Garden of Lotus (Breeze-Ruffled Lotus at Quyuan)
曲院风荷
A free lakeside garden of linked lotus ponds, wooden walkways and arched bridges on the north-west shore. In July and August the lotus beds are the best in the city.
The story
What makes this place special
The name is about beer, not flowers. In the Southern Song there was a government brewery on this spot that made qu wine from the water of the Jinsha stream, and the ponds beside it were planted with lotus and water chestnut, so on a summer breeze you got the smell of fermenting wine and lotus together - hence 'breeze among the lotus at the brewery courtyard'. The Kangxi emperor re-inscribed the name, which is how it joined the canonical Ten Scenes. The brewery is long gone; what remains is the lotus.
What you’ll discover
A connected series of lotus ponds, islands, zigzag bridges and waterside pavilions at the north-west corner of the lake, where Beishan Street meets Yanggong Causeway, running south to the north end of the Su Causeway. Hundreds of lotus varieties are grown, with the choicest in the 'wind lotus' section, and in July and August the water is covered with them, much of the path running on low bridges a metre above the flowers. Out of lotus season it is a pleasant, shady, watery park with little to look at.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- This sight is seasonal to the point of being a different place. Come in July or early August and it is one of the best things on the lake; come in November and there is nothing to see. Chinese advice is to be there between about 6am and 8am, when the flowers are open and dewy and the light is low - by midday in heat the blooms close up.
- There are two ways in, which catches people out: the main gate is opposite the Yue Fei Temple, and there is a second entrance near Yadi Bridge at the north end of the Su Causeway.
- It is free and has no gate in the usual sense, and it links the Yue Fei Temple, Guo's Villa and the botanical garden into one continuous walk along the lake's north-west shore - that whole stretch is the quietest part of West Lake.
- Walk the low zigzag bridges rather than the perimeter path. The design puts you down among the lotus leaves rather than above them.
- Pair it with Guo's Villa immediately to the south, which is the only intact private lakeside garden on West Lake and is almost always empty.
When to come
July and early August, at first light. Outside the lotus season there is little reason to make a special trip, though the park is a shaded and pleasant link in a north-shore walk.
Getting around
Good. Flat lakeside park at water level, with paved paths and level timber bridges rather than stepped stone ones in most places, so a wheelchair can see the lotus ponds. A few of the pavilion approaches and ornamental bridges have steps. The lakeside shuttle bus serves the north shore road at the gate.
Worth knowing before you go
Visit in July at dawn when the lotus flowers are open and before the heat; by midday in August many blooms have closed. The garden flows straight onto the north end of Su Causeway, so pair the two.
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