| The facilities and services here are more than the standard International Youth Hostel. |
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| The small evergreen courtyard: the courtyard is full of colorful flowers and fruit trees. Such as loquat, cherry trees, sakura, sweet osmanthus, tangerine tree, red maple tree, camellia and the begonia. It is said that the begonia was the incarnation of two brothers, and it expresses the harmony relationship between brothers. In the West Lake Youth Hostel, you can eat loquat in summer, cherry and tangerine in autumn, but we are willing to make appointments with the hikers here, because there are various kinds of osmanthus, such as golden osmanthus, silver osmanthus, fragrant osmanthus and season¡¯s osmanthus. It is full of osmanthus¡¯s fragrance in the house in the middle-autumn, at that moment, it is so happy that we drink tea and chat together, drink wine and appreciate the scenery of the moon under the osmanthus tree. |
Chinese courtyard emphasized the character of storage and balance, because we will ease at home when we are in such courtyard. The mountains affected the people, and the water affected the wealth, and water runs by the coming wind between the mountains and the waters.
Therefore, the communication among people is more harmonious. The courtyard of the West Lake Youth Hostel is a traditional courtyard. Put some old-fashioned cane chairs and tables under the green trees and red flowers and a wooden swing chair under the osmanthus tree where no matter you are an adult or a child, you can sit here.
With the sound of birds in the early morning, you walk into the courtyard and sit leisurely in the cane chair, drink some green tea and read pages of old bindings, look at the cats and dogs playing in the courtyard, and you can feel the flavor of the old-fashioned house which has a long history of 300 years. All the guests from different places can taste the most delicious coffee, get the most authentic western-style snacks, and enjoy thousands of music in network. On weekends, such parties as self-help party and barbecue dinner are often held here. |
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Tourism Advisory Desk
(combined with the counter of the bar) |
Commodities Bars |
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| Hiker¡¯s bar (it is a place for hikes from around the world to chat together. It is the most important for hikes to make friends with the same interests here) |
Coffee Bars |
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| broadband internet access |
Information board (you can browse the latest information and exchange the travel experience with different travelers, and find flea market, and your companions here.) |
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| reading area(there are many novels and magazines with different languages ) |
DVD Movie House(more than 200 DVD movie can be appreciated here.) |
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| under the constant video surveillance |
Lease bicycle (you needn¡¯t waste money to take a taxi, what you have to do is riding a bike around the West Lake in Hangzhou.) |
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| Automatic washing (it should be a long time since your last clothes washing by yourself. As a traveler, you should do it by yourself to have enough food and clothes. 10 Yuan/ cylinder.) |
chinese and western food available |
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Legend of the West Lake Youth Hotel
The traditional Chinese elements in the West Lake Youth Hostel:
the most beautiful legend composed all of the elements in the hostel.
The West Lake Youth Hostel in Hangzhou was the imperial palace of the capital of Southern Song Dynasty 1000 years ago. And it was also the home of the guardian of the West Lake in Hangzhou Golden Phoenix¡¯s. It is said that in ancient times, in order to regain the pearl which was occupied by the Queen in the heaven, in the process of the scrambling the pearl, the pearl fell into the world and became the beautiful West Lake, but Golden Phoenix reluctant to leave the pearl, therefore, she became a mountain which was named Phoenix Mountain to protect the pearl, and the place where the West Lake Youth Hostel located was her home. Therefore, there are four phoenix ox legs in the West Lake Youth Hostel to protect Golden Phoenix¡¯s bedroom. And an old-fashioned bridal sedan chair was also in the hostel, it was the bridal sedan chair, which used for her lover the Jade Dragon married her. It is said that the Jade Dragon who become the Jade Mountain has always protected the Golden Phoenix. There are full of various traditional Chinese elements in the West Lake Youth Hostel, which let the hikes appreciate the thousands of year¡¯s Chinese civilization in leisure. |
 Phoenix ox leg: There are two pairs of phoenix ox legs in the Hiker Bar of the West Lake Youth Hotel, sourced from a young lady¡¯s bedroom in a Bachelor government office of Song Dynasty as noted in research. Using Phoenix as ox legs meant that this lady had an honorable status, an attractive appearance and a noble character. Hence, the reason why these two ox legs are here in the West Lake Youth Hostel is just because of this legend of West Lake.
It is said that long and long ago, a Jade Dragon and a Golden Phoenix guarded a bright pearl, where the light of this pearl shines, the trees keep green, and the flowers are always in bloom. Later this pearl was found by the Queen in the heaven, and then the Jade Dragon and the Golden Phoenix lost the pearl to the World, the pearl became the shimmering West Lake, the Jade Dragon and the Golden Phoenix also descended to the world to guard the West Lake forever as the Jade Emperor Mountain and the Phoenix Mountain.
As coming to Song Dynasty when Su Dongpo served in Hangzhou, he wrote a poem to praise the West Lake: Rippling waters shimmering on a sunny day, Misty mountains shrouded in rain; Plain or gaily dressed like Xizi; West Lake is always alluring. Poets often regard the West Lake to a Chinese ancient legendary beauty Xishi, and so the West Lake is also called ¡°Xizi Lake¡±. From this perspective, the West Lake Youth Hotel is also the bedroom of the beautiful girl Xizi.
Bridal sedan chair (Ten Li of red dresses): It is said that once in Song Dynasty, the king of Kang Zhao Gou was pursued by many soldiers of Jin, when he was running away to east Zhejiang, there was no way in the front while the soldiers were still pursuing, luckily a young village girl saved him. After Zhao Gou became the emperor, he issued an imperial decree to repay the girl and both to show the favor of the emperor that girls in east Zhejiang can use half subsidiary imperial carriage while being married.
 The bridal sedan chair is a direct reflection of the position of a bride, which represents being legally married. Therefore, it is the most glorious moment of a woman's life while she is sitting in an exquisite Bridal sedan chair, getting married accompanied by a retinue of ten Li of young women.
Since the goodness and badness of the bridal sedan chair could reflect the identity of the bride, and also reflect the quality of her parents¡¯ life, a lot of wealthy families did not care about the cost while making the bridal sedan chair. The raw materials of the bridal sedan were all famous and precious wood, while the outward appearance was decorated with gold and cinnabar, and there are also various delicate patterns in relief or being hollowed out. It would cost hundreds and thousands of man-hours and need multiple working procedures such as carpenter, lacquerer, carver, copper labor, and commercial painter to make such one bridal sedan chair. Hence some bridal sedan chairs are called ¡°Thousand Labor Chair¡± or ¡°Ten Thousand Labor Chair¡±.
In some wealthy families, workers are invited to make the bridal sedan chair for marriage when the daughter is still eight or nine. And in some other cases, the bridal sedan chair has not been completed yet even a few days before the marriage while the bride is going to get married, as a result, the host has to send out people provisionally to look for craftsmen, and the bridal sedan chair is ultimately completed after working day and night.
In the time to get married, the bridal sedan chair in which the bride sits is blooming, and is carved in hundreds of legendary people like the god bestowing the luck, the Qilin delivering the child, the eight immortals crossing the sea, the harmony and reunion immortals and so on, which makes viewers dazzling, and surrounding neighbors praising that this is really one gentle and revered specific wealthy family.
Gate: The ancient considered the atmosphere of a patriarchal clan as clan manner:
And considered the reputation of a family as clan reputation; when court official broke the law and brought the disaster upon nine degrees of kinship, which was called the clan Extermination.
Though the nails of gate, we could also see the family's wealth and status, the top grade gate nails is the Imperial Palace¡¯s gate¡¯s. the nine was considered as the president of yang, which represented the emperor, therefore the nails were made in nine lines and nine rows ,the total is 81,by then, the gate nails became the symbol of king's dignified, and did not have the structure function completely.
The rich family knocker was casted into various beautiful patterns with iron, the top grade was casted into the shape of animals, just like the shape of dragon, it is said that the dragon had nine sons, one of which was called Shutu, his visitors needed to knock the door with the knocker.
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| Ancient gate |
Millstone |
Cane chair |
Stone mortar |
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| Tree-root carving |
Tree-root carving |
The wheel of war chariot |
Swing chair |
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| Water wheel |
Pond |
Copper door lock |
Copper door lock |
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| Lantern |
Palm-bark rain cape |
Darts |
Rocking chair |
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