West Lake, Anji Bamboo, Tianducheng (Mini Paris), Longjing tea villages.
Wed 10/28 LOCKED - Nick's Hilton Free Night is booked at Qiushui Villa, West Lake. Thu 10/29 still TBD (Nick pushing for 2 nights; may collapse if a Suzhou day-trip wins out of Shanghai instead).
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.
2 Michelin stars - first ever for Hangzhou. Refined Hangzhou cuisine inside the Botanical Garden by West Lake. Xihu fish, Longjing shrimp. Chef Fu Yueliang.
Newly 2 Michelin stars (2026 promotion). Inside a bamboo forest west of West Lake. Modern Zhejiang cuisine, Chef Yu Bin.
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.
1 Michelin star (2026 guide). Cantonese-Zhejiang fine dining at Four Seasons Hangzhou at West Lake. Lakeview pavilion setting. Easier reservations than Ru Yuan.
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.
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.
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.
CANDIDATE STAY (splurge) - vote on it. 47 restored stone village dwellings (some 100+ years old) in a tea-and-temple valley by Lingyin Temple, run as an Aman resort. The 'whole restored village' stay. Eye-watering price; pin it as the dream option and see who's in. 6 km from West Lake.
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.
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.
1 Michelin star. Innovative tasting menu at JW Marriott Hangzhou (Wulin Square). Newer entry in the Hangzhou guide; modern French technique on Zhejiang produce.
Restored 1930s lakeside villa at 59 Beishan Street on West Lake's north shore, now a Small Luxury Hotels of the World member bookable via Hilton.
BOOKED - Nick's Hilton Free Night, Wed Oct 28. A restored 1930s lakeside villa (built by press magnate Shi Liangcai for Shen Qiushui) at 59 Beishan Street on West Lake's north shore, now a Small Luxury Hotels of the World member bookable via Hilton. Butler service, infinity pool, steps from the Broken Bridge end of the lake. The group is not planning around this; everyone else votes on the Hangzhou stay separately.
Wang Shu's residential village - rough concrete, abstract, half-empty. Easy from Hangzhou.
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.
Group of 24 artificial sandstone caverns at Fenghuang Hill near Longyou, Quzhou, Zhejiang. Believed to be 2,000+ years old; rediscovered 1992. Original purpose and construction method remain unknown.
Mysterious 2000-year-old man-made caverns. Genuinely unique.
Museum in Yinzhou District, Ningbo, designed by Wang Shu (2012 Pritzker). Façades use large quantities of recycled tiles and bricks salvaged from demolished local villages. Opened 5 December 2008; Lu Ban Prize, 2009.
Wang Shu again. Looks like a partly-collapsed mountain. ~1h from Hangzhou. Worth the day trip.
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.
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.
Mt. Sanqing, Jiangxi.
Nanjing lake park.
Steep stair-temple, Nanjing. Pair with Massacre Memorial.
Hefei art piece.