Map - 'The Latest Plan of the West Lake'

Er You Mountain Publishing House, 1917. The West Lake area, near Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, has been valued as a destination for travellers seeking outstanding scenic beauty since the 9th century. The subject of numerous classical paintings, literature and poetry, it has welcomed scholars, pilgrims, philosophers, monks and foreign envoys for over a thousand years. Many sojourners have left their mark in the form of numerous gardens, temples and pagodas constructed over the intervening centuries. In 2011, UNESCO declared the Lake and its surrounds a World Heritage Site, stating at the time that "The West Lake has influenced garden design in the rest of China as well as Japan and Korea over the centuries and bears an exceptional testimony to the cultural tradition of improving landscapes to create a series of vistas reflecting an idealised fusion between humans and nature." The present map, a large scale woodblock print, dated 7th year of the Republican era (1917), illustrates and names the various natural and man-made features of the area in pictorial form, providing a panoramic view of the region. Mountains, islands and causeways, walls and gates, pagodas, pavilions, gardens and general vegetation are all depicted in remarkably fine detail. The nature of the map appears to be aimed at a popular clientele; the long colophon providing directions for visitors to the many points of interest depicted in the map. Size (in cm.): 51.5(h), 61.0(w). Condition: very good, with no losses or discolouration. Recently remounted in scroll format..