Dawn of the Southern Song
1 min readDawn’s first rays warm the face，and the scent of peaches perfume the air as swallows chirp and whoosh overhead.Along the Su Causeway are some of the many simple pleasures in which guests can delight whilst waxing poetic about the Southern SongDynasty.Named after the poet and official Su Shi（苏轼），Spring Dawn at Su Causeway is the first among the top ten poetic scenes of the lake of the Southern Song Dynasty，and while it may have been created before the dawn of the Southern Song in 1090，it certainly sets the tempo.
The official Su Shi had West Lake dredged，giving employment to more than 200，000 workers during his time here.In so doing，Su incidentally set Hangzhou apart from other cities across China and the world for its advanced urbanization-a balanced blend of nature and city life.Both his work and his literary legacy are the reason the Su Causeway bears his name.
During the epic Song period’s peak，China’s population soared from 50 million to 100 million with advances made in chemistry，math，poetry，and worldwide trade，and with that success came a powerful navy and merchant fleet which would see the shores of Arabia and India.Over centuries of careful management，Hangzhou became the nexus of a commercial boom that would see it rise as one of the major commercial ports of the age.
