Hangzhou

As one of the most renowned and prosperous cities of China for much of the last 1,000 years, Hangzhou is also well-known for its beautiful natural scenery, with the West Lake (Xī Hú, 西湖) as the most noteworthy location. It is a sub-provincial city located in the Yangtze River Delta in the People's Republic of China, and the capital of Zhejiang province. Located 180 km southwest of Shanghai, as of 2004 the entire Hangzhou Municipality (area administered by city government) had a registered population of 6.5 million people. The urban agglomeration of the Hangzhou metropolitan area (杭州市区）has a resident population of 3,931,900 as of 2003, of which 2,636,700 are legal residents, of which there are 1,910,000 residents in the urban core six districts.

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[edit] Transportation

The transportation to Hangzhou is very convinient.

Air
Hangzhou is serviced by the Hangzhou Xiaoshan (萧山)International Airport (Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport Ticketing Office), which has direct flights to Japan, Thailand, Korea, and Singapore, regional routes to Hong Kong and Macau, as well as numerous domestic routes. Located just outside of the city in the Xiaoshan district, it is one of the major secondary international airports in China.
To conveniently search the airline information as well as booking ticket, please visit Expedia for international travelling, and ctrip for domestic affares. You may want to learn more from the official site of Xiaoshan Airport(at present, only Chinese version is available).

Dragonair - Hangzhou


Note:
1. tranportation from airport There are regular shuttle bus from the airport to downtown from 7:30AM to 20:00PM. The cost is RMB15 Yuan(about $2) and time required is about 1 hour. For more detailed information, please refer here for a complete list.


Railway
Hangzhou Railway Station (colloquially the "City Station" 城站) and the significantly less modern Hangzhou East Railway Station (colloquially "East Station" 东站) serve the city centre, from which one can catch a train to Shanghai and almost anywhere in China. A Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev Train Line has been proposed.


Bus
Hangzhou has the most convenient bus transportaion in China. Within 4 hours, you can drive to Shanghai, Nanjing and many places with beautiful scenes. North, east, south and west long-distance bus stations offer regular large and small coach services to towns within Zhejiang province and surrounding provinces.

[edit] Public Facilities

  1. Bank of China - Hangzhou
  2. Public Security Bureau - Hangzhou
  3. Zhejiang University First Affiliated Hospital
  4. Foreign Languages Bookshop - Hangzhou
  5. Hangzhou Tourist Centre

[edit] Internet Access

  1. Zonline

[edit] Accomodation

There are many luxury hotels in Hangzhou, such as The legendary Shangri-La Hotel (book your rooms here) and Zhejiang Xizi Hotel. Both of them are located at the bank of the enchanting West Lake, and you can overlook Solitary Hill Island from your room. If you want cheaper hotels, I think Backpackers Hotel is the choice. The price is 45 RMB/day.

  1. Jiexin Century Hotel
  2. Dongpo Hotel
  3. Zhongshan Hotel
  4. Dahua Hotel
  5. Wanghu Hotel
  6. Grand Hyatt Regency

See all hotels in Hangzhou

[edit] Restaurants

Hangzhou food is very famous in China. Here are several good restaurants:

  1. Kuiyuan Restaurant
  2. Tianwaitian Restaurant
  3. Louwailou Restaurant
  4. Lao Hangzhou Fengwei
  5. Carrefor Shopping Centre


1.茶酒年代

2.罗贝拉

3.古兰轩饭店

4.山外山

[edit] Bars and Nightlife

There are several fun bars and night-life activities near Nanshan Road, Lingyin Road. Here are some of the notables

  1. 31 Art
  2. Babyface
  3. Fire Cicada
  4. Kana's Bar
  5. Night and Day

[edit] Stores and Shopping

Local Specialties in Hangzhou:

West Lake Dragon Well Tea(Buy on Amazon)

With a history of over 1200 years, West Lake Longjing Tea tops Chinese Ten Renowned Teas for its “green color, fragrant aroma, nice shape and sweet taste”. It can be divided into five categories including Lion(Shifeng),Dragon(Longjing),Cloud(Yunqi), Tiger(Hupao)and Mei(Meijiawu), in which Shifeng is of the first grade and “Before Tomb-Sweeping Day Tea’Is the best.

Hangzhou Silk (Buy on Amazon)

Hangzhou has a long history in producing silk which covers 14 categories namely silk, satin, floss, slub, crape, damask silk, gauze, voile and so on. It is far sold to over 100 countries and regions. In 1926 Du Jinsheng Brocade won a golden medal at Philadelphia Intemational Expo in America with a multicoloured brocade landscape picture.

Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors With a history of over 300 hundred years and featured by even steel inlay, fine grinder, sharp blade, Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors enjoys high reputation home and abroad and is acknowledged as King of Chinese Scissors.

Wangxingji Fans Famous as Elegant Hangzhou Fans in the Song Dynasty, Wangxinji Fans includes 15 categories in which black paper fans and sandalwood fans are the most renowned. It not only sells well in China, but also finds its way into over 50 countries and regions in the world Lmitation of Southern Song Dynasty Official Porcelain Kiln: thin roughcast and thick glaze,ceramic glaze.

West Lake Silk Umbrella Taking bamboo as frames and silk as cover, West Lake Silk Umbrella is called the Flower of West Lake for its beautiful style. Now it has more than 10 categories including daily silk umbrellas, rainbow umbrellas, dancing umbrellas and acrobatice silk umbrellas, etc.

You can find all of them in Hangzhou Tower Shopping Center. And there many small shopes around the West Lake, where you can find many cheap goods.



[edit] Tourist Attractions

Hangzhou's most famous scenic sight. Technically, there are "10 Scenes of the West Lake" and "10 New Scenes," but they are overrated, and often seasonal (Snowfall Over Broken Bridge, etc). Rather than make a checklist and walking back and forth looking for them, simply spend a clear day wandering the circumference of the lake and the causeways, take a ferry to the islands, and you will probably cover most of the sites anyway. The "West Lake" itself can be divided into countless smaller sites, from Mr. Guo's villa to "Orioles Singing in the Willows". The "West Lake Scenic Area" itself is very large. This section only covers areas in the immediate vicinity of the lake. Other spots are covered in later sections. www.gotohz.com www.hangzhou.com.cn

  1. Zhejiang Provinclal Museum
  2. Mousoleum of General Yue Fei
  3. Yellow Dragon Cave Park
  4. Baoyu Taoist Compound
  5. Leifeng Pagoda
  6. Jingci Temple
  7. Lingyin Temple
  8. Huqing Yutang Chinese Medicine Museum
  9. China Academy of Art
  10. China Silk Museum
  11. China Tea Museum
  12. Dragon Well Tea Vilage
  13. Six Harnonies Pagoda
  14. Southern Song Dynasty Guan Kiln Museum

[edit] Map

  1. (A) Hangzhou Train Station
  2. (B) Qinghefang Old Street
  3. (C) Leifeng Xizhao Hill
  4. (D) Jianguo Road

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