West Lake,the tea hills,Longjing in the leaf.
Forty-five minutes south of Shanghai by high-speed rail. China's most-painted lake, and the Longjing tea hills that rise behind it.
Hangzhou is what Shanghai isn't. Forty-five minutes south by high-speed rail, a thousand-year-old lake city that Marco Polo called the finest in the world. West Lake was inscribed as a UNESCO Cultural Landscape in 2011: six square kilometres of water ringed by causeways and pavilions painted into a thousand scrolls. The hills behind grow Longjing tea, the green tea you will drink for the next forty-eight hours, picked at altitudes you can stand on yourself. We arrange Hangzhou as a two-night stop: the lake at dawn, the tea hills mid-morning, Lingyin Temple before the day groups arrive.
Hangzhou,
the way we arrange it.
West Lake at dawn
The Broken Bridge in mist.
The lake's north shore is empty before 07:00. We walk the Bai Causeway from the Broken Bridge to Solitary Hill, with morning mist lifting off the water and the pavilions emerging one at a time. The boat tours start at 08:00. The walk takes about an hour at a slow pace.
Meijiawu tea village
Longjing, in the leaf.
The Longjing tea hills rise west of the lake. We bring you to a working family farm at Meijiawu, tea picked at the right altitude and brewed in the right water. An hour with the farmer who picked it, a slow pot, and you understand why genuine pre-Qingming Longjing costs what it costs. The same farmer ships internationally if you want to take some home.
Lingyin at first prayer
The temple before the day groups.
Lingyin Temple is one of China's largest Buddhist monasteries, with Song-era stone Buddhas carved into the cliff face on the approach. We are at the cliff before the gates open, then inside for the morning chanting. The day groups arrive after we are already at the third hall.
Questions worth
answering early.
Two nights. Day-trippers from Shanghai arrive at the lake at 10:00 with the buses, eat lunch on a tour-boat, and leave at 16:00 having seen the busy, crowded version. The honest Hangzhou is the dawn walk before the boats, the late evening when the lanterns reflect on still water, and the tea morning that requires being outside Shanghai's commute. Two nights makes them possible.
The Shanghai
loop, both sides quiet.
Suzhou's Classical Gardens
The other side of Shanghai by high-speed rail. Lake city and garden city, two contrasts in a three-night swing.
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The Forbidden City
Imperial Beijing as the north anchor; Hangzhou's lake as the southern soft-landing. A canonical north-south.
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The Li River
Two of China's most-painted landscapes: karst peaks south, willow-lake east.
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Jack Guo
Senior Travel Specialist
Jack has spent ten years working with the guides, drivers and hoteliers across China. He'll be your contact from first enquiry to final airport pickup.
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