Travel Agent

History tells that the original Leifeng Pagoda was built during the Yuan dynasty (975 AD) at the order of the King of Wuyue in commemoration of the birth of his son. However, in the advent of Ming dynasty, Japanese pirates burned the tower to ashes leaving only its brick framework behind. After many years, the remaining brick structure has collapsed and was buried underneath the grounds. In 1999, the Government of Hangzhou and Zhejiang province decided to excavate the brick remains and ordered the re-construction of the Pagoda. On October of 2002, the construction of the new five-storey pagoda has been finished and remained opened to the viewing public.

Rumor has it that the remains of the Pagoda could “exorcise evils spirits, make people give birth to boys, and make silkworms thrive” for which the people of olden times were stealing bricks from its remains causing it to finally collapse. The remains of the brick structure (as well as the other treasures found in an underground chamber) are now being preserved and displayed at the base of the Leifeng Tower but something’s telling us that the people are still stealing the remaining bricks to turn into souvenir items because the layers of the bricks has been starting to collapse without the help of a few supporting poles but we didn’t have enough evidence to validate our theories.

On one of the five floors of the Leifeng Tower contains huge wooden carvings depicting the tale of a Bai Suzhen (White Snake) who, according to a Chinese Legend is a demon who transformed herself into a woman, falls in love with a mortal and was finally captured and imprisoned in the basement of the old tower. My wife, Elmer and I could not contain our amazements at the details of the wooden carvings causing simultaneous exchange of WOW!s and WHOAH!s to the three of us. Perhaps the others are coming from the nearby tourists as well.

From the entrance gates, the Leifeng Tower could be accessed through an escalator leading to the base of the tower. From hence, you could go to each layer through two elevators though we still prefer to take the stairs instead because of the enormously long queues of jubilant people. Regular entrance tickets are priced at 40 RMB per person.