Nationally Protected Ancient Pagoda: Zhakou White Pagoda.

Zhakou White Pagoda is located in Baita Park on Fuxing Street, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, not far from Liuhe Pagoda. It is a stone pagoda built at the sluice gate where Zhonghe River flows into the Qiantang River, built in the late Wuyue Kingdom period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The pagoda is a stone imitation of wood, a representative Wuyue brick and stone pagoda, and was selected as a third batch national key cultural relic protection unit in 1988. In the history of pagoda construction in China, Wuyue stone pagodas have an important position, playing an important role in the transition between the Tang and Song dynasties. Zhakou White Pagoda is a well-preserved and exquisitely made example, praised by Liang Sicheng as a "classic work of this type of stone pagoda in the south and even the whole country from the late Tang and Five Dynasties to the early Song Dynasty." The appearance of Zhakou White Pagoda is basically intact, a solid stone pagoda imitating a wooden pavilion, with eight sides and nine levels, and a total height of about 14.12 meters. The pagoda consists of three parts: the base, the body, and the finial, with a slender and elegant outline, and each level consists of the body, eaves, and flat seat. The base is carved with patterns of mountains and sea waves, symbolizing the "nine mountains and eight seas," and each level of the body is carved with Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and classic stories, with vivid and lifelike figures. Zhakou White Pagoda is almost entirely carved according to the wooden structure method, and in the discussion of the imitation of wood by Liang Sicheng and Fu Xinian, it can be seen that the stone pagoda, whether the body or the eaves, can almost be regarded as a "model" of the same period wooden pagoda with reduced dimensions. During his tenure in Hangzhou, Northern Song politician and writer Fan Zhongyan wrote a poem "Passing by Yuhang White Pagoda Temple" here, "Climbing the temple by the river, the exiled guests linger. The distant water seems endless, the lone boat has not returned. The chaotic peaks hide the good places, the secluded egrets fly leisurely. How much innocent fun, the distant heart is tied to the green hills." Currently, Zhakou White Pagoda is under repair and not open to the public. There is a White Pagoda Historical and Cultural Exhibition Hall under the pagoda, introducing the history of Zhakou White Pagoda and displaying a remnant of the pagoda finial from the Wuyue Kingdom period of the Five Dynasties (Figures 7, 8). In the Zhejiang Provincial Museum (Zhijiang Branch), there is a full-scale restoration model of Zhakou White Pagoda (Figure 9).