Tradition and greenery in China’s most beautiful city
Acclaimed by Marco Polo as “the City of Heaven, the most beautiful and magnificent in the world,” Hangzhou (say Han-Cho) is still considered China’s garden city, renowned for its scenery and relaxed lifestyle. This summer it’s being explored by a “Modern Marco Polo.” Winner of an international internet contest, unofficial ambassador Liam Bates will attract visitors to the vernal locale just southeast of Shanghai. Potential tourists should consider spending a week, focusing each day on one of the city’s magnificent attributes. Here’s a proposed itinerary, a seven-day — “Seventh Heaven” — tour of Hangzhou.
13th century Italian traveler Marco Polo and “Modern Marco Polo” Liam Bates
Day 1 West Lake
The city’s centerpiece and heart is ethereal West Lake dotted with picturesque islands and crisscrossed with paths and causeways. Charming boats glide past pagodas and the Broken Bridge of beloved legend. Take a picnic to Huxin Pavilion and laze around until time for dinner at waterside Lou Wai Lou restaurant. Dating from 1838 it is where visiting presidents and dignitaries are entertained. Wind up the day attending “Impression West Lake.” Created by Zhang Jimou who masterminded the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, the elaborate sound and light show is performed on a submerged stage contrived make it appear that the actors are actually walking on water.
A cruise boat pauses for an island picnic
Walking across legend’s beloved Broken Bridge
Day 2 The Grand Canal
Started in the fifth century BC, the world’s longest artificial river, the Grand Canal stretches almost 1100 miles from Beijing to terminate in Hangzhou. Still an active waterway and in contention to be named a UNESCO Heritage Site, the canal cuts a swath of trees and traditional bank side buildings as it flows through the urban landscape. An ultra modern Grand Canal Museum introduces the significant role it has played in unifying the country.
From the museum cross the steeply arched stone Gongchen Bridge to the preserved Historic Culture Block featuring a promenade, waterside cafes, museums, and the Living Handicraft Exhibition Hall a converted factory where craftspeople demonstrate the arts of making umbrellas, fans, chopsticks, scissors, embroidery, bamboo baskets, purple sand teapots. Then a ride down the canal delivers passengers to the busy commercial district of Wulin Square and the city’s metro line.
A commercial barge passes the Canal cruise boat
Craftspeople demonstrate the art of making umbrellas
Day 3 Xixi National Wetland Park
Former charming fishing villages on the outskirts of town have been preserved and converted to the Xixi National Wetland Park a verdant maze of meandering paths, causeways, clusters of traditional wooden buildings virtually floating on a four-mile square “pool” of water which can be explored by walking, bicycle or boat cruise.
The site of the city’s’ famous Dragon Boat festival, the park displays models of the colorful vessels amid souvenir stands and funky tea shops. Stroll down the “Slow Life Block of Jiangjun Fair” where signs encourage you to “drink tea and coffee, kill time in a bar, read or sit staring blankly at the leisure with slow pace of life.” Pause to watch cormorant birds trained to catch and retrieve fish for local fishermen and conclude the day with a twilight Fish Feast at the elegant restaurant of Misty Water Fish Village.
Exploring the Wetland Park by boat
Cormorants are trained to do the fishing
Day 4 Longjing Tea
Pale yellow Dragon Well, considered the finest variety of Chinese green tea, originates in this region, in the nearby village of Longjing which is set among plantation terraces bearing the bright green-leaved tea trees.
En route stop at the China National Tea Museum which traces the history and significance of tea in Chinese culture, describing the types of tea and proper tea etiquette and prescribing precisely how Dragon Well tea is to be brewed with water at 80 degrees Centigrade and the three “nods of Phoenix” tipping motion.
Conclude “tea day” at the Sunny Hotel’s renowned Tea Banquet where chef Jack Son prepares over a dozen dishes all based on the six varieties of tea.
Tea Museum exhibits explain the types, history, and etiquette of tea
Sunny Hotel chef Jack Son explains dishes based on tea varieties
Day 5 Temples
One of China’s most famous Buddhist temples, Lingyin (Soul’s Retreat) is a multi level cluster of great halls enclosing giant statues of gods and deities. Housed within a park, its approach skirts Feilai Peak, a hill lined with cave openings and almost 500 statues of gods and deities carved right into its limestone surface.
Nearby imposing sculptures of Confucius and other philosophers are found in the painted wooden Confucius Temple. Contiguous to the Grand Canal, the Xiangji Temple which dates back 1000 years is an oasis of quiet within the bustling city.
Feilai Peak Buddha carving
Pavilion in the Xiangi Temple
Day 6 Tradition
Several museums broaden the traveler’s knowledge of the region’s cultural heritage. Exhibits in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum trace the lore of ceramics, celadon, porcelain. The stories of important local products are told in the Chinese National Silk Museum, the China Umbrella Museum, the China Fan Museum, and the China Knives, Scissors and Swords Museum. The lush Hangzhou Botanical Garden lies at the foot of Jade Spring Hill. More than 200 types of animals are exhibited — a pair of pandas star — in the well marked, woodsy Hangzhou Zoo.
Get a sense of bygone Hangzhou on a stroll through the two-story carved wooden shops of the Qinghefang Historic and Cultural Block, now a bustling tourist bazaar.
Beloved pandas at the Hangzhou Zoo each eat 50 pounds of bamboo shoots per day
Night view of Quinghefang bazaar
Day 7 Ambiance
Spend a day just getting a feel for the leisurely lifestyle in the city of plantings and endless green vistas. Wander down Middle Zhongshan Road among shops selling tea, silk scarves, garments, and snacks. Notice the 40-acre garden surrounding the blended east-west columned entrance of the Shangri-la Hangzhou Hotel formerly the communist state guest house. Join the crowds strolling along the Hubin West Lake waterfront past the curving facade of the ultra modern Hyatt Regency Hangzhou Hotel. Just at dusk wind up the day at the West Lake Musical Fountain Show admiring the aerial waves of water, a visual expression of “Living Poetry” which is a motto of the beautiful city.
Constant activity on the West Lake shores.
Dancing waters portray the city’s beauty