Hangzhou

The path round the lake comes to about fifteen kilometres. Nothing is charged to walk it. The Su and Bai causeways cut across the water and are crossed on foot, or a boat drops you at the island in the middle. Lotus covers the north end in summer.

More than three hundred Buddhas cut between the Five Dynasties and the Yuan survive in the rock of Feilai Feng. They are looked up at along a stream path, and temple and rock take separate tickets. Inside the halls the incense is thick enough to sting.

The brick footings of the old tower, which fell in 1924, are still there in the basement of the new one. A lift carries you up, and the Baochu Pagoda stands facing you from across the lake.

The slopes at Meijiawu and Longjing are tea top to bottom, and by late March someone is bent over every row. Leaf picked before Qingming is called mingqian and priced apart. Teahouses float the leaves loose in a lidded cup, so the lid strains it.

An old line says Longjing has to be brewed with this water, and every morning people queue at the spout with plastic drums. The surface tension is high enough that a demonstration bowl takes coins on a brimming rim without spilling.

Raised in 970 to hold down the tides of the Qiantang. It shows thirteen storeys from outside and has seven within, so the climb puts the same river in a window seven times over.

Fix the date before anything else. The bore peaks around the eighteenth day of the eighth lunar month, which falls anywhere from mid-September to early October. It is watched from the dyke at Yanguan downstream, where the inner bank closes on the big days.

A shopping street laid back over the road the Southern Song court once processed along. Standing in it is Huqingyutang, an apothecary opened in 1874 that still makes up prescriptions. Step into its courtyard and wooden drawers cover a wall end to end.

The channels knot up so tightly that you cannot walk the whole of it and a boat becomes the answer. Late October into November, when the reeds stand up, is the season; outside it the place is a quiet waterside path.

Seal carvers founded this society in 1904, and its buildings step up the slope of Gushan. Carved stones and steles stand in every courtyard, met on the way up the stairs, with the lake opening out at the top.

A tall, slender brick pagoda crowning Baoshi Hill above the northern shore; you cannot go inside. Stone steps from Beishan Road reach it in about 20 minutes, and there is no fee. Some go up at dawn for the red rocks glowing as the sun rises.

A three-arched stone bridge built in 1631 where the Grand Canal from Beijing reaches its southern end; UNESCO listed the canal in 2014. Water buses from Wulinmen pier run here along it, and old Qiaoxi street on the west bank has pharmacies and teahouses.

A valley path named for nine streams running through eighteen bends. Stepping stones carry you over the water again and again between tea fields, and the far end leads on towards Longjing village. After rain the stones turn slippery; put on shoes that grip.

The tomb and shrine of Yue Fei, the Southern Song general, sit on West Lake's north shore. Before the grave kneel iron statues of Qin Hui and his wife, who framed him. So many people used to spit on them that a sign now forbids it.

The Upper Tianzhu temple, reached by walking on up the valley from Lingyin. The uphill lane between its yellow walls has become a photo spot, and many young people come to pray for a good match. It is quieter than Lingyin, and the ticket costs less.

The walled city of the Liangzhu culture, five thousand years old and UNESCO-listed in 2019. The park is big enough to tour by electric cart or bike, and the Liangzhu Museum with its jade cong is a separate entry. It lies in Yuhang, north of town, by metro.

A water town just past an hour by road from Hangzhou, with eastern Dongzha and western Xizha on separate tickets. Xizha has lodgings inside, and many book a room there to see the evening lights. Since 2014 the town has hosted the World Internet Conference.

A reservoir made by damming the Xin'an River in 1959, with 1,078 islands on its surface. Below lies Shicheng, the old town drowned at the time, still intact. High-speed trains run from Hangzhou, and a boat round a few islands takes the day.