Three nights now. West Lake, Anji Bamboo, Tianducheng (Mini Paris), Longjing tea villages. Suzhou is an optional day trip, 1h20 each way.
Three nights, two days. The 27th is only a bed - the Shanghai flight lands 19:20 and the Hangzhou train comes after it - so the stop is the 28th and 29th plus a loose morning on the 30th. Suzhou is an optional day trip at 1h20 each way, not the 45 minutes doing the rounds, and it costs one of the two.
West Lake at peak autumn colour. Light layers.
Budget 1h20 each way, not the 45 minutes in the itinerary. A 36-minute service does exist, but it runs Hangzhou West to Suzhou South and both of those are miles from anywhere you want to be. From Hangzhou East to Suzhou North it is about 1h20, roughly $17, and around 42 bullet trains a day.
¥150 a day, three days, ¥450 a head. Fifteen of us is ¥6,750.
Any foreign passport, plus Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan travel documents. Everyone on this trip.
Claim once a day on Oct 27, 28 and 29. The scheme closes Oct 31 and we leave on the 30th, so a missed morning is ¥150 gone.
On Qingbo Street, about 100 m from West Lake and 200 m from the Orioles Singing in the Willows park on the shore. Wushan Square metro is about a 10-minute walk; Qinghefang and the Southern Song Imperial Street are about 1 km, Leifeng Pagoda about 1.5 km.
Paris-themed housing estate in Linping District, Hangzhou. Opened 2007 with a 108 m Eiffel replica and Baroque fountains. Originally planned for 100,000+ residents; ~30,000 by 2017.
Mini Paris with Eiffel, in Hangzhou suburb. ON YOUR ROUTE - easy add from Hangzhou.
Two-Michelin-star Zhejiang restaurant at 11 Yuquan Road, inside the Hangzhou Botanical Garden near West Lake, opened 2023 by chef Fu Yueliang, a Zhiweiguan-trained third-generation disciple of master Dong Shunxiang. Reworks Hangzhou classics - Xihu vinegar fish, Longjing-tea shrimp, and a pagoda-shaped braised pork. Books direct by phone (+86 571 8707 9088); no online reservations.
2 Michelin stars - first ever for Hangzhou. Refined Hangzhou cuisine inside the Botanical Garden by West Lake. Xihu fish, Longjing shrimp. Chef Fu Yueliang.
Two-Michelin-star Zhejiang restaurant at the Seven Villas resort, 1 Bapanling Road, set in a bamboo forest west of West Lake. Seasonal menus change monthly and balance Jiangnan tradition with modern technique; Michelin highlights Mrs Song's fish stew and candied lotus root stuffed with sticky rice. Reservations by phone via the hotel (+86 571 8886 7888).
Newly 2 Michelin stars (2026 promotion). Inside a bamboo forest west of West Lake. Modern Zhejiang cuisine, Chef Yu Bin.
Hangzhou's most famous restaurant, founded 1848 by Shaoxing fishmonger Hong Ruitang at Gushan on West Lake and designated a China Time-honored Brand. Signature dishes are West Lake vinegar fish, Longjing shrimp, Beggar's Chicken, and Dongpo pork. Past diners include Sun Yat-sen, Lu Xun, Zhou Enlai, and Jin Yong.
Founded 1848 at the foot of Solitary Hill on West Lake. Beggar's Chicken, Dongpo pork, Longjing shrimp. Hosted Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Zhou Enlai.
One-Michelin-star Chinese restaurant (starred 2023-2026) at Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake, 5 Lingyin Road, led by chef Wang Yong. Serves Jiangsu-Zhejiang cuisine from seasonal ingredients sourced across China; Michelin flags the braised pork belly and the dim sum lunch with crabmeat-and-roe xiao long bao. Eleven private dining rooms with water views.
1 Michelin star (2026 guide). Cantonese-Zhejiang fine dining at Four Seasons Hangzhou at West Lake. Lakeview pavilion setting. Easier reservations than Ru Yuan.
One Michelin star (2026). Garden restaurant at 399 Longjing Road in the tea hills west of West Lake, known in English as Dragon Well Manor, founded in 2004 by slow-food pioneer Dai Jianjun. No main dining room: eight private rooms, each with its own bathroom, and a seasonal menu the kitchen sets in advance. Reservation only, by phone on +86 571 8788 8777; no source says one room seats 15.
1 Michelin star. Hidden in Longjing tea hills west of West Lake. Set-menu Zhejiang cuisine using ingredients from the surrounding villages. Book weeks ahead.
Buddhist monastery traditionally founded in 328 AD by the Indian monk Huili; the limestone peak Feilai Feng in front of it holds 153 shrines and more than 470 rock carvings, mostly Northern Song and Yuan. The scenic area (including Lingyin, Yongfu and Taoguang temples) dropped its 45 yuan entry and 30 yuan temple incense voucher on 1 Dec 2025.
Entry is free since 1 Dec 2025 but needs a real-name booking in the 杭州灵隐飞来峰 mini-program (WeChat or Alipay), at least 1 day and up to 7 days ahead; open 7:30-17:30, last entry 17:00. The Feilai Feng carvings are on the walk in, so give it a half day and carry passports.
Hangzhou campus designed by Pritzker laureate Wang Shu and Amateur Architecture Studio. Recycled tiles and bricks; landscape-integrated layout around Xiangshan ('Elephant Mountain'). Phase I 2004; Phase II 2007.
Wang Shu's masterpiece. Pritzker-winning; rammed earth & recycled-tile concrete, partly ruinous by design. THE building of contemporary China.
Zhejiang restaurant in an osmanthus grove on Manjuelong Road, one Michelin star in 2026. Order the tea-smoked crispy chicken and river fish with dried bamboo shoot; each table gets a tea ceremony.
Gui Yu Shan Fang (桂语山房). 1 Michelin star. Hangzhou cuisine in a wooden house at Manjuelong, surrounded by osmanthus trees. Best in autumn when the trees flower.
Modern French set menu built on local Chinese produce, served under a white dome beside Xiang Lake. One Michelin star in 2026. Even the dinner rolls get steamed like Chinese buns before baking.
1 Michelin star (2025). Chef Olivier Elzer's modern French tasting menus under a white dome at Xiang Lake (south of West Lake), pairing Chinese produce with French technique. Award-winning huangjiu and wine program from Sam Wang. X-Livin, Xiaoshan.
Taizhou seafood cooked with Western technique by chef Lin Zihan, 2024 Michelin Young Chef Award, one star in 2026. Order the yellow croaker braised in fish stock; the wine list runs to thousands of labels.
1 Michelin star (2025). New Chinese fine dining by young chef Lin Zihan - Hangzhou Michelin Young Chef Award 2024. Western technique on Taizhou seafood: yellow croaker braised in fish stock, fried crab in sa cha curry over pan-fried rice cake. Zonia Tide Ginza, 2077 Binsheng Rd, Binjiang.
Six-table French tasting-menu room by chef Alan Yu, one Michelin star in 2026, with subtle Chinese twists. One set menu at lunch and dinner, at Meifan Plaza Proya on Xixi Road.
1 Michelin star. French tasting menu at Meifan Plaza Proya, 588 Xixi Road (not Wulin Square).
Kengo Kuma & Associates' conversion of the disused 1950s Sinopec Xiaohe oil depot into a 51,000 m2 riverside park on the Grand Canal (opened 1 Oct 2022): four warehouses and seven oil tanks reused under a web-like ETFE canopy.
XIAOHE PARK (小河公园), Gongshu, Hangzhou - Kengo Kuma's conversion of the 1950s Sinopec Xiaohe oil depot on the Grand Canal (opened Oct 2022): four warehouses and seven oil tanks kept and reused, three silver tanks perforated with thousands of holes, all under a web-like ETFE canopy that filters light like leaves. Free riverside park; walk it with Xiaohe Zhijie (south) and Qiaoxi Zhijie / the canal museums (north). Pin is the canal-bank centroid (+/-150 m) - no official polygon exists yet.
A 0.51 sq km block west of Gongchen Bridge that grew from a Qing canal wharf into a textile and silk mill district; conserved from 2006 and opened in 2010, its former cotton mill, silk mill and warehouse buildings were converted into a four-museum group that opened from 2009.
This is the canal-side factory quarter that holds the knife, umbrella and fan museums plus the Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum, all free on one booking. Walk it with Gongchen Bridge, and Xiaohe Park is about 500 m south along the same bank.
A 2,460 sq m museum of Chinese traditional blades and everyday tools, scissors and knives on the ground floor and swords upstairs, with a hands-on zone; it occupies the former Hangzhou local-products company warehouse at 336 Xiaohe Road.
Free, but book ahead through the museum's WeChat account; one booking covers all four Qiaoxi museums. 9:00-16:30, last entry 16:00, closed Tuesdays per the newest listings (older ones say Monday). The umbrella museum is next door, about 60 m away.
Wang Shu's residential village - rough concrete, abstract, half-empty. Easy from Hangzhou.
Three-arch stone bridge over the Grand Canal, 92.1 m long, first built in 1631 (Ming) and rebuilt in 1885 (Qing); it marks the Hangzhou terminus of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and is a Major National Historical and Cultural Site.
Pedestrian stone bridge over the Grand Canal with the Qiaoxi craft museums on its west bank, so do them together. Water bus Line 1 runs along the canal from Wulinmen pier to the Gongchen Bridge stop just north of the bridge.
A 2,411 sq m museum on umbrella history and craft, from West Lake silk umbrellas and oil-paper umbrellas to pieces from Spain, Japan and Britain, including the wanminsan, a ceremonial umbrella commoners presented to officials they approved of; it shares the former local-products warehouse with the knife museum.
Same free booking as the knife museum next door (about 60 m), so do both in one go. 9:00-16:30, last entry 16:00, closed Tuesdays per the newest listings.
Fan museum inside the former Tongyi cotton mill (通益公纱厂, built 1896 and opened 1897, later Hangzhou No. 1 Cotton Mill), a national key cultural relics site listed in 2013 as part of the Grand Canal heritage; the mill's east and west sheds now hold the fan museum and a handicraft demonstration hall.
The building is the old Tongyi cotton mill, the most industrial of the four, about 140 m west of Gongchen Bridge. Same free booking and Tuesday closure as the other Qiaoxi museums.
Karst-valley adventure park inside the Chuiyun Tongtian River scenic area, Tonglu: underground river cave cruise, aerial luge, cliff skywalks and rope courses across three themed zones.
OMG HEARTBEAT PARK (OMG心跳乐园), Chuiyun Tongtian River scenic area, Yaolin, Tonglu County. The viral karst-valley adventure park: 1 km underground river boat ride through a lit karst cave, aerial luge (3x the length of Singapore's Skyline Luge), cliff skywalks, rope courses, three themed zones (Journey to the West, Enchanted Forest, Sky City). Day 8:00-16:30, night session 17:00-20:30 with light show. One-ticket pass ~RMB 399; ~RMB 469 incl. the cave cruise. ~70 km SW of Hangzhou; HSR to Tonglu, then taxi.
Bamboo expo garden and research facility in Anji County, Zhejiang. Recognised by scholars as containing one of the widest varieties of bamboo species in the world; combines research, education, and tourism.
Day trip from Hangzhou, easy add.
Underground Buddhist palace complex (220 m long, 89 m tall) built 2011-2015 inside a former iron-mine pit on Niushou Mountain, Nanjing; enshrines the parietal-bone relic of Shakyamuni Buddha.
NIUSHOU MOUNTAIN / USNISA PALACE (牛首山佛顶宫), Jiangning, Nanjing. The most sci-fi Buddhist site in China: a 90 m-deep underground palace built into an abandoned iron-mine pit (opened 2015), enshrining what is billed as the world's only parietal-bone relic of the Buddha, under a gold-and-LED lotus dome. Entry ~RMB 98; 8:30-17:30, last entry 16:30. Nanjing side-quest off the Beijing-Shanghai HSR trunk; ~30 min by car from Nanjing South station.
3,780 m^2 independent bookstore in a former underground parking lot/bomb shelter beneath Wutaishan Stadium, Nanjing. Opened 2004. Listed by BBC and CNN among the world's most beautiful bookshops.
Underground bunker bookshop, Nanjing. Cult favorite.
Designed like a black-stone gash in the earth. ~1h from Hangzhou by HSR; overwhelming.
Dongyang street snack: eggs boiled in urine collected from young boys, cracked, then simmered again in fresh urine for about a day. Sold as a spring delicacy and listed locally as intangible cultural heritage.
Tongzi dan in Dongyang. Acquired taste, photogenic story.
Theme park in Changzhou, Jiangsu, inspired by video game franchises (notably resembling World of Warcraft and StarCraft) but not officially licensed by Activision Blizzard.
Bootleg WoW/Starcraft theme park, Changzhou. Cult curiosity.
Nanjing lake park.
Steep stair-temple, Nanjing. Pair with Massacre Memorial.