Leifeng Pagoda

The original Leifeng Pagoda was built in 975 CE during the Wuyue Kingdom by King Qian Chu to commemorate the birth of a son and to house Buddhist sutras and relics, standing on Sunset Hill on the south shore of West Lake. The pagoda collapsed in 1924 after centuries of structural decay, worsened by a folk practice of removing bricks believed to bring luck, an event that inspired reformist writer Lu Xun's essay "On the Collapse of Leifeng Pagoda." The pagoda is also central to the folk legend of the White Snake, in which the White Snake spirit is imprisoned beneath its foundations. The structure was rebuilt between 2000 and 2002 as a modern steel-and-copper pagoda erected over and preserving the excavated Wuyue-era brick foundation ruins, which visitors can view through glass floors and an underground chamber housing a stone relic chest recovered during excavation. The interior features bronze relief panels depicting the White Snake legend and Wuyue-period Buddhist scenes, alongside elevators and glass-walled viewing floors offering panoramic views of West Lake absent from the original 10th-century structure.