Yúháng

Yuhang lies west of Hangzhou, where streams descend from the Tianmu Mountains towards the Tai Lake plain. South Lake was an old work of water control, its embankments helping to contain floods and supply irrigation. Officials repaired and dredged the lake through successive dynasties. In the Southern Song, after flooding in 1194, the magistrate Zhou Zhang mobilised thousands of workers to restore and widen its embankment. By the Ming, settlement had encroached on the northern lake, while the southern basin continued to serve as a reservoir despite gradual silting.