West Lake Colored Port View Fish Garden --- an Attractive Tourist Destination

West lake Colored Port View Fish Garden gives you the splendid view of gold and orange colored fishes in the pond. These fishes in the pond are very smart. They get excited when they sense human beings are reaching to them because they know that they are going to be fed by the tourists. Watching hundreds of Koi gold fish jumping in the water to struggle for food grain is a wonderful treat to experience. They are not scared of humans. There are so many fishes that you feel like you can carry in your hands! The fish pond is part of 300 acres of the large park. The park has many divisions such as red fish pond, peony garden, forest land five scenic spots and flower lawn. The Fish Garden is located in the south western of West Lake.

The Fish Garden is known for flowering plants, gold and red colored fishes and the harbor. All these give spectacular scenery for the visitors. One of the attractions is the Lei Feng tower, which is built across the causeway. The Lei Feng tower is actually a kind of temple. The park is the epic attraction of the regional tourism and lots of efforts are being carried out by the administration to promote the tourism potential of the Fish Garden.

The Fish Garden has a long history starting back from Southern Song Dynasty. During the Song Dynasty, on the banks of Huaxi stream flower hill villa was constructed. This was known as 'Lu Yuan' which was surrounded with cool water and flowering wild plants. After some years the villa 'Lu Yuan' was abandoned and during the period of Kangxi Emperor southern tour, they constructed the Wave Bridge, temples and pavilion gardens. Initially it was a small garden of 3 acres with a small pool and a monument. After a series of renovation and expansion works, today it spreads over an area of 20 hectares consisting of large parks densely planted with trees and flowering plants.

Along with the fading of Qing Dynasty, the park also lost its charm and gradually moved in to oblivion leaving only a pool, barren garden and a monument. In 1952 the original 'huagangguanyu' gives way to the present form of goldfish pond, peony garden, lawn, pavilions, rest pavilions and other leisure amusement facilities. By 1964 the renovation work of the project was completed and the new park with an area more than 20 hectares, which is much bigger than the old park, then the park opened to the public.

Today, the West lake Colored Port View Fish Garden is the cynosure of tourist attraction. Local tourists from China treat this as one of the best leisure destination and as a result there is tremendous tourists’ influx into the park area. Similarly, the area attracts lots of international tourists by having extensive marketing efforts. The travel connectivity to Hangzhou town is excellent. The super speed railway network from Shanghai can take you to Hangzhou within 6 hours, there are enough tourists coaches and regular bus services are available to move the West lake Colored Port View Fish Garden.