Xiaoshan District 萧山区

Setting and landscape

The north of Xiaoshan is built from silt that the Qiantang tides carried in, land known locally as shadi (沙地, "sand land"). The district has a subtropical monsoon climate with a mean annual temperature of 16.8°C. Local speech belongs to the Wu (吴语) dialect group and is close to that of Shaoxing (绍兴), not Hangzhou, because in ancient times Xiaoshan always belonged to Kuaiji (会稽).

History

A county called Yuji (余暨县) was set up here in 2 CE under Kuaiji Commandery. In 742, under the Tang, it was renamed Xiaoshan after Mount Xiaoran (萧然山) within its borders. Xiaoshan became a county-level city in 1988 and a district of Hangzhou in 2001. Qiyuan Temple (祇园寺), first named Chonghua Temple (崇化寺), was founded in 331 at the western end of today's Tiyu Road. The district holds three national and nine provincial protected heritage sites. One of the provincial sites is the Wuben Hall (务本堂) in the old town of Huantan (欢潭).

What to see

The Kuahuqiao site (跨湖桥遗址), on the south shore of Xianghu Lake (湘湖) in Wenyan Subdistrict (闻堰街道), is a Neolithic settlement dated to about 8,000 to 7,000 years ago. It was named one of China's ten major archaeological discoveries of 2001 and became a nationally protected site in 2006. Finds include a pine dugout canoe, 560 centimetres long as it survives, and a wooden bow, each described as the earliest of its kind yet found in China.

Xianghu Lake is a national 4A scenic area in the southwest of the district. In 1112 the county magistrate Yang Shi (杨时) had embankments built between the hills, turning farmland back into a reservoir that watered 140,000 mu of rice fields in nine townships. It was named for views that resembled the hills and waters of Xiaoxiang (潇湘). The lake's fine clay fed a brick and tile industry: kilns were built on filled-in parts of the lake, and brickworks on the shore later dug mud and walled off more than 1,000 mu, until brickmaking ended in 2007. Water was let into the lake's third phase in 2016, restoring its old gourd shape. Hangzhou Paradise (杭州乐园), near the lake, opened in 1999.

Food and local products

Xiaoshan preserved radish (萧山萝卜干) is a Chinese geographical-indication product. Xiaoshan lace (萧山花边), also called wanlüsi (万缕丝, "ten thousand threads"), is openwork embroidery that began in the Kanshan (坎山) area. Local embroidery absorbed European lacemaking at the end of the Qing dynasty. Its making was added to the national intangible-heritage list in 2021.

Highlights

• Kuahuqiao site 跨湖桥遗址: Neolithic site of about 8,000–7,000 years ago; yielded China's earliest known dugout canoe; national protected site since 2006.
• Xianghu Lake 湘湖: Reservoir created in 1112 by magistrate Yang Shi; restored to its gourd shape in 2016; national 4A scenic area.
• Xiaoshan lace 萧山花边: Openwork embroidery from Kanshan that absorbed European lacemaking in the late Qing; national intangible heritage since 2021.
• Xiaoshan preserved radish 萧山萝卜干: Chinese geographical-indication product.