WestLakeIsland
WestLakeView
One of the best parts of my November visit to China was the tour I took of West Lake, in the city of Hangzhou. West Lake is a special place, treasured by all of China but treasured in particular by the residents of Hangzhou. After a few hours there I could understand why; the landscape is restorative. Everywhere I looked there was a different kind of beautiful. We took this boat:Across the lake to this island:And along the way the view looked like this:After the boat ride we toured the West Lake Museum, where I developed an even deeper appreciation for the power of this place. Turns out that for hundreds of years there has been a history of identifying the best views or spots at the lake and giving them special status, sort of a West Lake Top Ten. An important part of this practice is that each special place is given a poetic name. In fact, according to the museum interpretation West Lake serves as one of the best examples of the Chinese tradition of assigning poetic names to beautiful places. There have been a number of these poetic lists at West Lake over the years; the most well-known (and one of the oldest, although I had trouble pinpointing list origins) is this one (I recommend clicking here for the full effect, with photos):Dawn on the Su Causeway in SpringCurved Yard and Lotus Pool in SummerMoon over the Peaceful Lake in AutumnRemnant Snow on the Bridge in WinterLeifeng Pagoda in the SunsetTwo Peaks Piercing the CloudsOrioles Singing in the WillowsFish Viewing at the Flower PondThree Ponds Mirroring the MoonEvening Bell Ringing at the Nanping HillPeriodically, even up to present day, new lists are created, sometimes involving public contests. A recent list is:Cloud-Sustained Path in a Bamboo GroveSweet Osmanthus Rain at Manlong VillageRunning Tiger Dream Spring at Hupao ValleyInquiring about Tea at Dragon WellNine Creeks Meandering Through a Misty ForestHeavenly Wind over Wu HillRuan's Mound Encircled by GreennessYellow Dragon Cave Dressed in GreenClouds Scurrying over Jade Emperor HillPrecious Stone Hill Floating in Rosy CloudPoetic indeed. After some online investigation I found other places in China--Beijing, for example--with designated poetic names, but not a whole lot of information about the overall history of the practice and its cultural meaning. Let's be clear, therefore, that I'm coming at this as an uninformed outsider, but I really like this concept. And while a visitor like me can appreciate poetic names at West Lake, I think they are mainly meant for locals. It's a way of acknowledging the places we go back to again and again, the ones that make us appreciate changing seasons and times of day, the ones we would fight to preserve. It says: "I know this place. For it, not just any name will do."My experience at West Lake made me immediately start thinking about my own special places and what their names should be. I've been playing around with some of my favorite cities: Ball Soaring toward Green Monster (Boston) and Tervasaari Burning with Afternoon Light (Helsinki), for example. I've also been thinking about my house: Sun Streaming through Front Window Turns Us Catlike, and Sunday Funnies Enveloped in Fluffy Goosedown Cloud. Some results have been better than others but I'm not too concerned about that; it's the process that matters. There's a lot of joy in thinking about your favorite places and distilling them down to their most meaningful attributes, savoring the possibilities of each word. And I could see how a city-wide effort--crowd-sourcing suggestions, voting on the best names, arguing passionately, celebrating the outcome--could be a powerful collective experience.Post a comment if this has you thinking about poetic names for the places in your life. I'd love to start keeping a list. And who knows, maybe turn it into a full-scale project some day.