West Lake Area (Chinese: 西湖區) is an area in the Let's Play Server, southwest of Spawn Area where the lakes are. East is Southern Snowland, south is Hamura Area, west is Ishikari and Lake City Area, north is Jinnapak Area and Icon Pier Area. More than half of the area is covered by waterbody, and most of the lands and stations inside the area are developed by WLT/BDark. The name is taken from the real life West Lake in Hangzhou, however it only means the large lake at the west of Spawn Area here.
As given by its name, West Lake Area has majority of area covered by different types of waterbody, mainly lake, river and stream. Bays, peninsula and islands are common in the area.
Land is relatively scarse in West Lake Area than in other most areas. Flatland is further limited as south of Kwong Chow residence and Tai Po residence is hilly. Railways and bus services are highly subject to the tracks and roads alignments available.
Most lands outside residences are covered by forests. They are mostly forested highlands, with some mix of temperate highlands near Kwong Chow, birch forest near Birch Hill and old growth spruce taiga biome northeast of Chung Kwo Kok. Sai Mo Island is one of the few moonlight grove areas. Decent area of steppe or plains near residences can also be found.
West Lake Area is second last area directly connecting to Spawn area that builders start to develop and plan transportation1). Due to the large portion of waterbody in the area, development is more difficult than other areas near Spawn Area, and Spawn Area itself.
At the same time, because of the lakes providing abundant water resources, and the shores providing land good for farming, there are a couple of residences in the area. BDark saw the opportunity of working on old towns, hence founded WLT and developed there.
The first project done is Kwong Chow Grand Canal and Heritage. Houses that were prone to flooding were resided to a new area north of original town, the small stream was expanded into the now Grand Canal. The excess mud in the stream was digged out and given to resided villagers for the aid of farming in less fertile new area.