China attractions - A Hangzhou legend goes that in 819 AD the great Buddhist master, Xing Kong visited Hangzhou and lived here for a short period. However, there was no fresh water source near his home, so he decided to leave Hangzhou. One night a god appeared in front of him and said, "Don't worry about the water ! There is a fountain located at the Southern Hill, I will dispatch two tigers to deliver water from there !" On the next day, he saw two tiger running here and digging the ground, so the water flowed. Since then this place has been named as the Tiger Running Spring ("Hu Pao Quan" in Chinese).
Actually, the water of the Tiger Running Spring is flowed from the tiny faults of the cliff located on the side of the Daci Hill, the flowing amount is between 43.2 and 86.4 cubic meters per day. The water looks crystal clear and tastes very good, so the spring is the most famous among the fountains around the West Lake. Originally, the Tiger Running Spring has three wells, by combining two of them, now the spring has two large pools.