Leifeng Pagoda (léi fēng tǎ 雷峰塔) is located on Sunset Hill (xī zhào shān 夕照山) along the south route of the West Lake (xī hú 西湖) in Hangzhou City (háng zhōu shì 杭州市), Zhejiang Province (zhè jiāng shěng 浙江省). It is a five storey tall tower with eight sides. The pagoda was a symbol of the West Lake scenic spots.

Leifeng pagoda was originally constructed in the year of AD 975. To celebrate the birth of a son by one of his favorite concubines – Huangfei, the King of Wuyue Kingdom (wú yuè guó wáng 吴越国王) gave an order to built the pagoda, so it was called Huangfei Pagoda (huáng fēi tǎ 皇妃塔) at that time. The pagoda was collapsed in 1924. In October 1999, the provincial and municipal governments decided to rebuild Leifeng Pagoda over the ruins of the old one. The new one is designed to be a five-storied pavilion inlaid with brick and upturned eaves and was opened on 25 October 2002. Since then it has been a popular tourist attraction.

The famous writher Lu Xun (lú xùn 鲁迅)wrote an essay named Comments about the collapse of Leifeng Pagoda (lùn léi fēng tǎ de dǎo diào 论雷峰塔的倒掉). It declared the collapse of the Leifeng Pagoda was a major blow to the feudalistic social order that had ruled China for thousands of years. The essay was later included in a textbook for Chinese students.

Leifeng Pagoda became a household name in China because of the Legend of the White Snake (bái shé zhuàn 白蛇传). In the touching story, a snake girl and a young man fell in love with each other, but they were separated by an evil old monk with magical powers, who had the snake girl imprisoned under the Leifeng Pagoda for years. She is finally rescued by her son who caused the collapse of the pagoda.

The body of the pagoda was based on a steel structure and copper parts which was made up of 1400 tones of steel and 200 tones of copper. It contains four sightseeing elevators, and modern features including air conditioners, televisions and speakers. At the entrance of the pagoda there are two autonomous elevators to carry visitors to the foot of the pagoda. The pagoda was 71.679 meters in length and covers an area of eight hectare.

Leifeng Sunset (léi fēng xī zhào 雷锋夕照) is one of the ten sights of the West Lake. The book West Lake Zhi (xī hú zhì 西湖志) described the scenery like this, "The Lonely Tower exist lofty with bricks all red and enlaced by vines. Green and lovely, the sunlight shine in the west, pavilions and tower are golden, against the mountains, like a golden mirror first opening."

Leifeng Pagoda
Address: No. 15 in Nanshan Road (nán shān lù 南山路), West Lake District (xī hú qū 西湖区) in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province
Admission fee: RMB 40
Opening hours: 7:30 a.m.- 8:30 p.m.
Transportation:
Bus: K4, K808, Y1, Y3, J5, 822/K822, K504, Y6,Y9, Y7