The Keyan scenic area in the eastern suburbs of Shaoxing preserves the ancient stone quarries that supplied the grey-green Qingshi (bluestone) used in every bridge, canal wall, gate pillar, and floor flag in the old city. The quarries, worked from the Han dynasty until the twentieth century, have left a landscape of deep water-filled pits, sheer rock faces carved into geometric patterns, and cave temples cut directly into the quarry walls. The combination of industrial archaeology and natural scenery is unusual and specific to Shaoxing.
The main quarry lake is about ten metres deep and the bluestone walls that surround it on three sides show the regular horizontal and vertical cut marks of centuries of manual quarrying. Boat tours on the quarry lake provide the best view of the carved walls and the cave shrines above the waterline. The walk to the quarry from the nearest village passes through a landscape that still shows the traditional bluestone construction that the quarries supplied — the lanes, the bridges, and the rural buildings are all built from the same material cut from the same source.