stylistic:style_transfer, structural:summarization, information:classification, structural:scholar_edition, stylistic:tone
Yuan dynasty

In the Yuan dynasty, West Lake was still socially thriving, with a population full of exuberance for singing and dancing. Volume 23 of the Book of Yuan says, in the 2nd year of the Zhida era (1309), "in Hangzhou, Jiang-Zhe area, during half a year there were more than 1,200 foreign visitors. Foreigners Sangwu and Baoheding brought lions, panthers, crows and falcons. They stayed for 27 days. People and animals ate meat of more than 1,300 jin." Increasing number of businessmen and travelers from countries of Turkestan and western Europe came to visit Hangzhou. The most famous among them was Venetian explorer Marco Polo, who complimented Hangzhou in his travel notes as "the most splendid heavenly city in the world". In the late Yuan dynasty, there were "Qiantang Ten Scenic Spots", in addition to the "West Lake Ten Scenic Spots" of the Southern Song dynasty; the existence of which expanded the scope of tourism. During the Zhiyuan era of the reign of Kublai Khan, the lake was dredged, and renamed "pond of freeing captive animals" (放生池). Some of the lake area was gradually enriched and became cultivated zones. In the late Yuan dynasty, West Lake lacked governmental attention, and plutocrats and noblemen enclosed water zones, so that the lake deteriorated into a desolate state with most of its area silting up and turning into swampland.