Hangzhou is where China goes to look at something beautiful. West Lake is about 3 km long and wide, ringed on three sides by hills and cut by causeways that poets and governors built, and it has been a tourist attraction since the Tang dynasty. When the north fell to the Jurchens, Hangzhou became the capital of the Southern Song, and from around 1180 it was probably the largest city in the world. Marco Polo described it to Europeans. The lake is on a page of the Chinese passport.
It is not a museum city. The Song capital burned again and again, and what is left is a landscape: a lake you walk around, temples on the hills behind it, green tea on the slopes above the water, and the southern end of the Grand Canal. Alibaba, Ant Group, Geely and NetEase are headquartered here, so there is a modern city on the Qiantang River too. Five days works because the lake alone is a full day, the temples and tea hills are another, and the canal and old streets round it out. A water town shows what the region looked like before the towers.
Day one is the lake, day two Lingyin Temple and the Longjing tea villages, day three the Grand Canal and the old streets, day four the water town of Wuzhen, and day five the Silk Museum, the Six Harmonies Pagoda and the river. Start on a Monday: the lake is free and open every day, while the Tea Museum and the Grand Canal Museum close on Mondays, so the museums land on Tuesday to Friday and Lingyin, which now caps its daily visitors, is on a weekday. See our China country page for the bigger picture, and the Shanghai guide if you are continuing to the coast.
Every stop from the plan below, colored by day. Pick a day to see its route.
Sunrise at Broken Bridge, a boat to the islands, the seal-carvers' hill and a long walk down the Su Causeway to the pagoda at sunset.
The great Chan temple and its carved rock in the morning, then tea museum, tea village and a hillside of osmanthus in the afternoon.
The canal museum and the old stone bridge in the morning, a boat down the water, and the old Song streets with sunset on Wushan.
A train, a short bus and a day on the canals of one of the six famous water towns south of the Yangtze, ending with the lights on the West Quarter.
Silk in the morning, a pagoda and a tea spring in the afternoon, and the river and the new city at dusk.
This day needs no museum and no ticket queue, so it works on a Monday. The trap is the clock: in late October the sun rises around 6:10 and sets around 17:15, and the Su Causeway is a 2.8 km walk, so start it by 15:00 and keep the pagoda for last.
Broken Bridge is the most photographed bridge on the lake because of a story. In the legend of the White Snake, the snake spirit Lady White meets the scholar Xu Xian here, and when snow melts first on the middle of the arch the bridge looks broken, which gives the scene "Lingering Snow on Broken Bridge" among the Ten Scenes of West Lake. The rest of the year it is a stone bridge on a causeway.
Come at dawn anyway. You get the lake before the crowds, with the slender Baochu Pagoda on the hill to the north and mist on the water. Then walk east for breakfast along the lakeside streets.
Boats leave from the piers on the east shore, by the Hubin parks, and take 15 to 20 minutes to Xiaoyingzhou, the biggest of the lake's artificial islands, built in the early 1600s. The three small stone pagodas standing in the water around it are the "Three Pools", and the island appears on the one-yuan note. The Mid-Lake Pavilion, built in 1552, is the oldest island nearby. The real reason to go is the view of the shore from the water.
Not every cruise stops at the island, so ask at the booth which boat does and whether landing is in the price. Take a plain boat over a dragon-shaped one.
The Bai Causeway is the short one, running from Broken Bridge to Gushan (Solitary Hill), the only natural island on the lake. It is often tied to the Tang governor Bai Juyi, who strengthened the lake's dyke and planted willows, but the name comes from the white sand that once paved it. Several emperors built palaces on Gushan, the park on top was a Qing temporary imperial palace, and the Xiling Seal-Engravers' Society of seal carvers has its home on the slope.
Walk through for the gardens and the calmer side of the lake. The Zhejiang Provincial Museum, known for its celadon porcelain, has a branch here, but it closes on Mondays, so it is a trade-off if you want it. Lunch is next door.
Lou Wai Lou has stood on Gushan since 1848, by tradition, and it is the most famous restaurant in the city. President Nixon ate here on his first trip to China. It seats over a thousand, sits right on the lake and is expensive. It is the classic place for the dishes every visitor is told to try: West Lake fish in vinegar gravy, Longjing shrimp, Dongpo pork, and beggar's chicken baked in lotus leaves.
Is it a tourist trap? Partly. The room is big, busy and pricey. But the dishes are made to a standard and the setting is the lake, so do it once. Order two or three plates for the table, not ten.
The general Yue Fei fought the Jurchen Jin for the Song, and in 1142 he was executed on a frame-up after the court chose peace with the Jin. He was later pardoned, and the temple around his tomb, first built in 1221, became China's best-known shrine to loyalty and patriotism. It has a temple hall, a Temple of Loyalty and the tomb of Yue Fei and his son, and the sculptures along the spirit way date from the 12th century.
The site was heavily damaged in the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and restored from 1979. Come for the story rather than the architecture. It is a short stop at the start of the Su Causeway.
In 1089 the poet Su Shi, known as Su Dongpo, was governor of Hangzhou. He had the silted lake dredged and used the mud to build a causeway 2.8 km long, with about 200,000 workers. It has six arched bridges, willows and peach trees, and "Spring Dawn at Su Causeway" heads the list of the Ten Scenes.
Walk it from north to south, with the open lake on one side and the quieter inner lake on the other, and you come out near Nanshan Road, a walk from the pagoda.
The Leifeng Pagoda you see opened in 2002. The original went up in 975, ordered by Qian Chu, king of Wuyue, for his favorite concubine, and Japanese pirates burned its wooden parts in the Ming dynasty. Then a superstition took over: the bricks were said to ward off illness, so people chipped at the tower for years, and on 25 September 1924 it fell down. The writer Lu Xun wrote about it as the collapse of old thinking. The new one is a steel and copper structure with lifts and air conditioning, and the old foundations are visible below.
It is famous from the White Snake legend, in which the monk Fahai locks Lady White under it, and it is a good lookout. Go up for the view and stay for the evening light. Nearby Jingci Temple, first built in 954, rings its bell at dusk, though the current buildings date from the 1980s.
Spend the day on the hills west of the lake. Since 1 December 2025 Lingyin and Feilai Feng are free, but entry needs a named time slot on the Alipay or WeChat mini program, booked with your passport 1 to 7 days ahead, not on the day, so on a Monday start book it on Sunday or Monday. The Tea Museum is closed on Mondays, which is why this is Tuesday.
Feilai Feng means "the Peak that Flew Hither". By legend it flew overnight from India to show the power of Buddhist law, and as a craggy limestone hill among sandstone woods it does look out of place. It is 209 meters high and covered in carvings: more than 470 pieces in 153 shrines, from the late Tang and Five Dynasties through the Northern Song, which produced the most, to nearly a hundred from the Yuan. The biggest shrine, 9.9 meters long, shows the laughing Budai surrounded by arhats.
Walk the path along the stream under the cliff and look into the caves, where a crack in one roof lets a sliver of light through, the "one thread of heaven". The figures are weathered, but the setting makes up for it. Go first thing, before the temple fills.
Lingyin, the "Temple of the Soul's Retreat", was founded in 328 by tradition, by an Indian monk named Huili. Under the Wuyue kingdom it had 18 pavilions, 72 halls and more than 3,000 monks, and in the Southern Song it ranked among the ten great Chan temples of the Jiangnan region. It has been rebuilt at least sixteen times. In 1966 Red Guards planned to destroy it, and local people and students from Zhejiang University stopped them, with protection from Premier Zhou Enlai. It is also tied to the monk Jigong, a folk figure who trained here.
The point of the visit is the Mahavira Hall, 33.6 meters tall, with a 24.6 meter seated Buddha carved from camphor wood in 1956, the largest wooden Buddha statue in China. In the entrance hall the Weituo guardian dates from the Southern Song, some 800 years old. It is a working temple, so keep your voice down.
The Tea Museum's main branch, Shuangfeng, is on Longjing Road. Its collection covers tea utensils, tea paintings, packaging, old tea banknotes and the customs, poems and songs of tea, with exhibitions in Chinese and English. It is a useful primer before the tea villages.
Entry is free, booking goes through a WeChat mini program, and the museum is closed on Mondays. A second branch, Longjing, is about 3 km away in the hills. If you have time for only one, take Shuangfeng.
Longjing means "Dragon Well", after a well near this village, and the tea grown on these slopes is China's best-known green tea: pan-roasted by hand into flat leaves, sweet and fresh, with a chestnut note. By legend the Qianlong Emperor gave imperial status to eighteen bushes near the lake. The best leaves are picked before Qingming in early April, and the five peaks of the area are ranked, with Lion first, then Dragon, Cloud, Tiger and Plum Flower.
Have lunch at a farmhouse, where the food is local, such as pickled vegetables and chicken broth, and there is often no menu, so settle the price before you eat. Then walk the paths between the terraces. Be careful what you buy: tea sold as Longjing is often grown outside the protected area. Look for the geographical-indication label with a QR code.
Meijiawu is the largest Longjing village, with about 2,380 mu (around 160 hectares) of tea fields and 560 farming households, producing about 50 tons of dry tea a year. Bus lines 103 and 121 reach it.
From early March into May the leaves are picked by hand, and you can book a picking session with a farmer for roughly 350 to 1,000 CNY per group. In October there is little picking, but the walk uphill, away from the road, is the same, with views over the terraces.
In autumn Manjuelong, a tea village on the hill south of the lake, smells of osmanthus. The trees flower from late September into October, and in the village you may see people shaking the blossom off the branches to dry it. The yellow variety is the one used in sweets. Come in the late afternoon and stay for the light.
In 2026 the special bus service ran from 25 September to 11 November: line 87 on weekends and holidays and line 180 daily. On weekends and holidays cars are banned inside the village, so you walk in from the bus stops. On a Tuesday it is easy.
Today runs from the canal in the north to the old streets in the south. Take Metro Line 5 to East Gongchen Bridge for the museum. The trap is the water bus: it is cheap but the queue can run to an hour, so queue right after lunch, at the pier by 13:30, or skip it and take the metro. Either way, aim to reach Hu Qingyu Tang by 15:30, as its last entry is 16:30.
The Grand Canal is the longest artificial waterway in the world, about 1,776 km from Beijing to Hangzhou along its main line, and its southern end is here. It reached its full length by 609 and linked north and south China for centuries. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of three in Hangzhou with West Lake and the ruins of Liangzhu.
The museum tells that story. Allow an hour or two. It is free and closed on Mondays, which is why this is Wednesday.
Gongchen Bridge, the marker of the canal's end, was built in 1631 under the Ming and rebuilt in 1885. It is 92.1 meters long with three arches, the central one 9.2 meters high, the largest surviving stone arch bridge in the city. The name roughly means "to greet the emperor respectfully". Climb the hump and look down the canal. The streets nearby, such as Xiaohe Street, are recent "historical" alleys with shops and restaurants. The bridge itself is the real thing.
A water bus runs along the canal between Gongchen Bridge and the Wulin Gate area in about 30 minutes, a cheap way to travel back toward the center at the pace of the water. The fare is 3 CNY and the network runs 38 trips a day in 2026, but queues are long: about 45 minutes on weekdays, up to an hour on holidays.
If the queue is long, the metro from East Gongchen Bridge is quick and you lose little. From Wulin Gate it is a short metro or taxi ride to the old streets.
The Southern Song Imperial Street is Zhongshan Middle Road, a pedestrian street running from Xihu Avenue south to Hefang Street along the line of the old imperial way. It has been rebuilt, so the better reason to come is the mosque.
The Phoenix Mosque, also on Zhongshan Middle Road, is one of the four great mosques of China's southeast coast and among the earliest in the country. It dates from the Tang or Song, and the prayer hall was rebuilt in 1281 with money from a Persian settler, Ala al-Din. The minaret was removed in 1928 to widen the road. The brick hall with a domed ceiling does not look like a Chinese temple, and it is a reminder that the Song capital had Arab merchants.
Hefang Street is the restored old commercial street below Wushan, in the Qinghefang district, named after the mansion of the Song general Zhang Jun, made Prince of Qinghe. It is the most touristy street in the city and it knows it: more than a hundred shops, with antiques, calligraphy and street snacks. Walk it once and eat on a side street.
The real draw is Hu Qingyu Tang, the pharmacy founded by the merchant Hu Xueyan in the 19th century, which also houses a museum of traditional Chinese medicine (open about 8:30-17:00, last entry 16:30; check the ticket).
Wushan is the low hill beside the old city, and the view from the top is good on a clear day. Wushan Square at its foot has food, a bird and flower market and a night market on Yan'an Road, and the pagoda has an open-air tea house on top. The lake is close.
For a show, Impression West Lake is a Zhang Yimou production on the water, with two performances a night, with tickets from around 260 CNY. It is entertaining rather than a highlight. Song Dynasty Town is a Song-themed park with staged shows, not a historic site, so skip it unless that appeals.
The day trip is Hangzhou East to Tongxiang by high-speed train, then a bus or taxi to Wuzhen. Go on a weekday, leave early and check the last bus and train back before you stay for the evening.
Wuzhen is a canal town mostly of Qing dynasty houses, though it was first built in the 7th century. It sits in northern Zhejiang, in the triangle between Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai, and since 2014 it has hosted the World Internet Conference every year, an odd job for an old water town.
Two quarters are open to visitors. The East Quarter (Dongzha) is the more lived-in: most residents stayed, and you can walk the street free, with a ticket for the museums, workshops and former residences. It is crowded at weekends.
The writer Mao Dun was born in Wuzhen, and his family home, built in the mid-19th century, was restored in 1984 and made a key national protected site in 1988. His novel The Lin Family Shop describes life in the town. The poet and painter Mu Xin was also born and died here, and a museum is dedicated to him. Together they give the stage-set streets some depth.
Eat in the East Quarter, where restaurants sit in old houses along the canal. Expect Jiangnan home cooking: river fish and shrimp, braised pork, seasonal vegetables and huangjiu, rice wine. Ask the price before you order fish. A canal view costs a little more, and a noodle shop on a side street is the cheap option.
The West Quarter (Xizha) is larger and more polished, built around narrow canals, with a boat-bus. The original residents were moved out when it was redeveloped, so it is a restored town run for visitors, and some call it a theme park, which is fair. It is also the better-looking of the two, especially at dusk when the lights come on.
The West Quarter stays open until about 22:00, the East Quarter closes around 18:00. If you stay, check the last bus and train back to Hangzhou before you commit. Otherwise leave by 16:30 and keep the evening for the lake.
The last day goes south and then east, from the lake to the river that gave Zhejiang its name. The Silk Museum opens only at noon on Mondays, so a Friday gives you the whole morning.
The China National Silk Museum opened in 1992 and is the largest silk museum in the world, with a research center for textile conservation. After a refit in 2015-16 it has permanent galleries on the story of Chinese silk, sericulture and silk craft, and textile conservation, and it hosts the annual Hanfu (Chinese costume) festival.
Spend an hour on the permanent galleries and then see what the changing exhibition is. It is free, and it is a good place to learn what you are looking at before you buy any silk in town.
Jade Emperor Hill is one of the least visited sites in the city despite its central position. The temple on top is Daoist, in an area of mostly Buddhist temples, with a view over the lake and the city below. The hill is directly south of Leifeng Pagoda, and the main entrance is not far from the Silk Museum.
It is a quiet climb after the crowded lake.
Dreaming of the Tiger Spring is a wooded park with streams, bamboo groves, tea houses and the spring itself, and tea brewed with its water is the point. Entry starts around 15 CNY.
If you have not yet sat in a proper teahouse, do it here. Longjing is brewed in a glass, you watch the leaves unfurl and settle, and you top up with hot water. Ask the price before you sit.
The Six Harmonies Pagoda (Liuhe Pagoda) stands on a hill above the Qiantang River. The Wuyue kingdom built the first one in 970, reportedly to calm the river's tidal bore and as a navigation aid. It was destroyed in 1121 and rebuilt by 1165 under the Southern Song. The pagoda is 59.89 meters high and looks like it has 13 stories from outside, but it has only seven inside.
Climb the spiral stair for the view of the river. Inside, each of the seven ceilings carries carved and painted figures of animals, flowers and birds.
The Qiantang River produces what is called the world's largest tidal bore, the "Silver Dragon", though that is seen on the bay and lower river, not in the city. Qianjiang New City is the business district on its west bank, begun in 2007 when Hangzhou chose to grow toward the river instead of around the lake. The Civic Center, the moon-shaped Grand Theater and Raffles City are the landmarks, and the metro serves it.
It is the opposite of the lake, and the contrast is why you come. Walk the riverfront as the buildings light up, then take the metro back for a last dinner of Dongpo pork.
Places that did not fit in five days, ordered by distance from the lake.
A 1,150 hectare wetland of ponds, lakes and swamps crossed by six main watercourses, with a history of more than 4,000 years. Allow half a day.
Getting there: About 9 km west of the lake, by a Metro Line 3 branch or a taxi
The ruins of a city of the Liangzhu culture, the jade-carving Neolithic culture of 3300 to 2300 BC, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 6 July 2019. The museum is the place to start.
Getting there: About 19 km northwest of the center, Metro Line 2 to Liangzhu, then a short bus or taxi
A bamboo-covered hill 719 meters high, long a cool summer escape for Shanghai. Foreigners rented houses here from the 1880s and by 1910 about 300 had summer homes, and some of those villas are guesthouses now. It suits a night or two of walking better than a day, because of the transfers and because it is busiest in July and August.
Getting there: About 52 km northwest, train to Deqing then bus 113 or a taxi for the last 20 km
A canal town crossed by nine rivers, with a covered walkway nearly a kilometer long and stone bridges. It is nearer Shanghai than Hangzhou, but it is an alternative to Wuzhen.
Getting there: About 105 km northeast, high-speed train to Jiashan South, then a short taxi or bus
A man-made lake from 1959 with 1,078 islands and forested shores. It is a nature stay with boat rides rather than a day trip.
Getting there: About 133 km west, in Chun'an County; plan an overnight
The easiest way on from Hangzhou. The full plan is in the Shanghai guide.
Getting there: About 167 km northeast, 50-90 minutes by high-speed train from Hangzhou East to Hongqiao
Hangzhou cooking is fresh and soft, built on river fish and shrimp, bamboo shoots and tea, and it is less oily than the food of the north.
Thick squares of skin-on pork belly, pan-fried then red-cooked slowly with soy, rock sugar and rice wine. It is named for the poet Su Dongpo. By legend he devised it in exile in Huangzhou, not Hangzhou, and Hangzhou kitchens adopted it. The name first appears in print in the Ming dynasty.
Where to try it: Lou Wai Lou, or an old Hangzhou restaurant. One portion for the table is plenty.
A freshwater fish in a sweet and sour vinegar sauce, on every visitor's list, and the method is written into a local cooking standard. Opinions are mixed, because the result varies a lot from kitchen to kitchen. The Lou Wai Lou version is the most famous.
Where to try it: Lou Wai Lou on Gushan; check the price before ordering.
Shelled river shrimp stir-fried with Longjing tea leaves, so the tea scents a very light dish.
Where to try it: Lou Wai Lou is a known name for it, and the Dragon Well Manor is another Hangzhou-style restaurant.
A stuffed chicken wrapped in lotus leaves, sealed in clay and baked slowly. Most experts say it began in Hangzhou, and the legend is of a beggar who stole a chicken and had no pot.
Where to try it: A traditional restaurant; preparation can take up to six hours, so order ahead.
The city's drink, a green tea pan-fired by hand. Top grades are picked before Qingming in early April, and prices run from modest to very high. Much tea sold as Longjing is grown elsewhere.
Where to try it: A teahouse in Meijiawu or Longjing village; to buy, a shop with the geographical-indication label.
Yellow rice wine, the style of nearby Shaoxing, and the wine Dongpo pork is cooked in. It is the local alternative to baijiu.
Where to try it: Any Zhejiang restaurant.
Noodle soup with pickled mustard greens, bamboo shoots and lean pork, made famous by the noodle house Kuiyuan Guan, which opened in 1867 (the stories of its invention are folklore). A quick, cheap lunch.
Where to try it: Kuiyuan Guan, whose flagship is on Jiefang Road, or any local noodle shop.
Small steamed buns are a Hangzhou snack as well as a Shanghai one, and old restaurants sell them with other dim sum. Zhi Wei Guan, founded in 1913, is the best-known name.
Where to try it: The Zhi Wei Guan flagship on Renhe Road. It has dozens of branches, so go to the original.
Dense pastries filled with lotus seed paste or red bean, eaten at the Mid-Autumn Festival in September or early October. Out of season they are harder to find.
Where to try it: Bakeries and department-store food halls around the festival.
West Lake lotus root powder is a Hangzhou specialty snack. Osmanthus, whose yellow variety is the one used in sweets, scents the city in October.
Where to try it: Shops and stalls on Hefang Street and in the tea villages.
Baijiu is China's national spirit, a strong clear grain spirit drunk in small glasses with food and toasts. Order a glass before you buy a bottle.
Where to try it: Restaurants.
Light lager is the default beer with dinner, served cold. Coffee is easy to find, but tea is the better drink here.
Where to try it: Any restaurant or convenience store for beer; a cafe near the lake for coffee.
Choose by the metro and the mood: the lake for views and walking, the old city for streets and snacks, the station for trains.
Best for: First-timers who want the lake on foot
The shopping streets, lakeside parks and boat piers are here, and Metro Line 1 stops at Longxiangqiao and Fengqilu. The catch is price: hotels with lake views are the most expensive in the city, and the area is crowded on weekends.
Best for: Food lovers and anyone on a smaller budget
The old streets, the night market and cheap snacks are on your doorstep, and the lake is a short walk. The catch is noise, and fewer lakeside views.
Best for: Early trains, day trips to Wuzhen or Shanghai
Modern hotels beside the high-speed rail hub on Metro Lines 1 and 4. Easy for trains, but about 20 minutes by metro from the lake and with no old-town atmosphere.
Best for: A quiet stay with early access to the temple
Guesthouses among the tea terraces give you the hills at dawn and the first slot at Lingyin. The catch is buses and taxis instead of a metro, and early dinners.
Pinpoint: click each country on the world map - inside the border for full points, the closer the more you earn.
The practical stuff that makes the first day in Hangzhou easier.
China has a unilateral 30-day visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from 50 countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina and most of Europe (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and others). The list is on the National Immigration Administration site and the Shanghai government page, updated on 26 August 2026. The stay is up to 30 days, counted from midnight after you arrive, for tourism, business, visiting family and transit. For most of these countries the exemption runs to 31 December 2026, so check the list if you travel later. The United States is not on the list.
Travelers from 57 countries, the United States among them, can use the 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit policy, which is for people passing through China to a third country or region, not back to where they started: you need valid travel documents and an onward ticket with a confirmed seat and date, and you enter through one of 65 open ports. Under the policy you may travel across provinces within the permitted areas of 24 provincial-level regions, and Zhejiang, Shanghai and Jiangsu are among them. Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport shows up on third-party port lists but is not confirmed on an official page, while the Shanghai airports are a common alternative entry, a 50-90 minute train from Hangzhou. Check your port in the table on the National Immigration Administration transit page and ask your airline. Work, study and journalism always need a visa.
China runs on Alipay and WeChat Pay. Both let foreign visitors link Visa and Mastercard cards, with limits of 5,000 USD per payment and 50,000 USD a year under the 2024 government guidance. Set them up before you fly, as verification can take time. Cards are accepted in hotels of three stars and above and in the big attractions, UnionPay works everywhere, and ATMs with your card network's logo give out yuan. Carry some cash anyway: small shops and older people still use it, and counterfeit 100 yuan notes exist. On 23 October 2026, 1 EUR was about 7.5 CNY.
Google services, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X and WhatsApp are blocked on mainland networks, and most Western news and some other sites too. A local SIM or eSIM is filtered like any Chinese network. A roaming eSIM, or your home carrier's roaming, routes your traffic through a foreign network, so blocked apps often work, but it depends on the provider, so ask before you buy. A VPN is the other route, but the UK government notes that VPN services must be licensed by the Chinese government. Download offline maps and a translator before you land, and take screenshots of hotel addresses in Chinese.
Google Maps works only partly and its blue dot can sit tens or hundreds of meters off because China uses a shifted coordinate system. Amap (Gaode) has an English mode and lines up with the streets. Hangzhou Metro Line 1 runs from the airport through Hangzhou East station to the east shore of the lake, and the best way to pay is to link a Visa or Mastercard to Alipay and open the Transport code with Hangzhou selected as the city (the ordinary shop QR code does not open the gates). Do not count on tapping a foreign bank card at the gates until you have tried it. Buses reach Lingyin, Meijiawu and the tea hills, and taxis are metered. Take your passport on every train, to Lingyin and to the museums.
Foreign visitors buy high-speed train tickets with a passport, on the 12306 app or website or at the station window. Tickets go on sale about 15 days ahead, and popular times sell out around holidays. Trip.com is a simpler English booking site with a small fee. Take your passport to the station and to the gate, because it is your ticket ID. Hangzhou East is the station for Shanghai Hongqiao (50-90 minutes) and for Tongxiang, the stop for Wuzhen. Avoid the first week of October and Chinese New Year (6 February 2027), when everyone is traveling.
Lingyin and Feilai Feng are free but need a named reservation, with caps of 35,000 on weekdays, 50,000 at weekends and 65,000 on holidays, so book 1 to 7 days ahead with your passport. The Tea Museum and the Grand Canal Museum close on Mondays, and the Silk Museum opens only at noon on Mondays. On weekends in osmanthus season cars are banned in Manjuelong. The Qingming period in early April is the busiest week for the tea villages.
Foreigners must register their address with the local police within 24 hours of arrival. A hotel does this for you when you check in with your passport; in a private apartment, you must register at the local police station. Police can check ID, so carry your passport. Use the metro or a taxi app, or a marked metered taxi, and ask for a receipt. Hangzhou has its own favorite scam: the tea tasting, where a friendly stranger or a teahouse brings you hand-picked tea and a huge bill. Pick your own teahouse and ask the price before you sit.
Few people outside hotels speak much English, so save addresses in Chinese. The whole country uses one time zone, UTC+8, with no clock change.
Yes. Five days covers the lake, Lingyin and the tea hills, the canal and old streets, a water town and the silk and river side, with a gentle pace. With three days, do days one, two and three and skip the day trip and the river.
Late March and early April for tea picking, October for the osmanthus bloom, and November for clear weather. June is the wettest month and July and August are hot, with average highs above 33 C.
West Lake with the Su Causeway and Broken Bridge, Leifeng Pagoda, Lingyin Temple and Feilai Feng, a Longjing tea village, the Grand Canal at Gongchen Bridge and Hefang Street.
Wuzhen, the water town reached by train to Tongxiang and a short bus, about 1.5 hours each way. Moganshan is better for an overnight, and Xitang is closer to Shanghai.
Since 1 December 2025 the Lingyin-Feilai Feng area is free, but you need to reserve a time slot on the Alipay or WeChat mini program with your name and passport number. Book 1 to 7 days ahead, not on the day.
Not if you hold an ordinary passport from one of 50 countries on China's unilateral visa-free list, which includes the UK, Canada, Australia and most of Europe: you can stay up to 30 days, for now to 31 December 2026 for most. US citizens are not on that list but can use the 240-hour visa-free transit policy if they continue to a third country or region with a confirmed onward ticket. Check the official National Immigration Administration pages before you book.
Partly. Big hotels and top attractions take Visa and Mastercard, but most daily payments are by Alipay or WeChat Pay. Link your card to one of them before you fly, and carry some yuan for small shops.
Not on a normal local connection. Google services, Instagram and WhatsApp are blocked, as are Facebook, YouTube and X. A roaming eSIM from a foreign carrier sometimes gets around it, depending on the plan, and a VPN is subject to Chinese licensing rules. Install what you need before you go.
Find Hangzhou on the map, learn the flag and check how much you really know about China.
The first capital of China, with a wall you can ride and a noodle as wide as a belt. Five days, planned properly.
A harbor city with a car-free colonial island, earthen castles in the hills and a medieval port nearby. Five days, booking rules included.
A treaty port that became a skyline. Five days in China's biggest city, with the entry rules and apps sorted out first.
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