West Lake,and thetea hills behind it.
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 is UNESCO-listed, ringed by causeways and pavilions painted into a thousand scrolls. The hills behind grow Longjing tea, which is what you drink for the next forty-eight hours.
Hangzhou,
the way we run it.
West Lake at dawn
The Broken Bridge in mist.
The lake's north shore is empty before 7 am. We walk the Bai Causeway from the Broken Bridge to the Solitary Hill, with the morning mist lifting off the water and the pavilions emerging one at a time. The boat tours start at 8.
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, brewed in the right water. An hour with the farmer who picked it, a slow pot, and you understand why Longjing costs what it costs.
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're at the cliff before the gates open, then inside for the morning chanting. The day groups arrive after we're already at the third hall.
Same standard,
extended to the east coast.
- Our Shanghai partner team runs the Hangzhou leg, same standard, same bilingual guides (English & Chinese), same fleet protocol.
- We time West Lake to dawn and Lingyin to opening, every visit. Day groups from Shanghai arrive after 10, the photographs are taken by then.
- Tea is at a named family farm in Meijiawu, not the tourist tea house in town. Five generations on the same hill.
- No silk-factory detour, no tea-broker upsell. The day is the day.
Two nights,
the lake, the hills.
Two nights does Hangzhou cleanly: arrive by high-speed rail from Shanghai mid-afternoon, dawn at the lake the next morning, Meijiawu tea by mid-morning, Lingyin in the afternoon, optional half-day at Wuzhen water town on the way back. Most parties pair Hangzhou with Suzhou, three nights total either side of Shanghai.
The Shanghai
loop, two sides quiet.
Suzhou Gardens
Other side of Shanghai by high-speed rail. The lake city paired with the garden city, two complete 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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Your east coast,
sketched,
by reply tomorrow.
Tell us how many nights you have around Shanghai and whether you want both Hangzhou and Suzhou. We'll send a first-draft route (lake dawn timed, tea farm named, Suzhou added if you'd like) and an honest all-inclusive price. No deposit, no obligation.
From US$360/day on a private 5-seater with driver.
Rolled into your journey quote.