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| City Introduction |
| City name : Hangzhou |
| City Pic |
City Map |
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| Climate |
In terms of beauty, Hangzhou is picturesque all year round. In spring and summer, the trees turn green and the air is sweet. In winter, the snow falls on the lake creating a picture- postcard atmosphere about the city and in autumn, the temperature is pleasant and balmy and the sky a delightful color of amber.
In terms of comfort however, the heat can be unbearably intense during the summer. Fortunately, the many trees around the lake and in the hills do provide cover from the worst of the sun. The average temperature in the summer months is about 29 degrees centigrade.
Hangzhou's winters are never absolutely freezing and even in January, which is the coldest month, the average temperature is about 3 degrees centigrade.
However, many places are not equipped with heating systems, making the winters much harder to bear as compared to the northern cities like Beijing. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant months and last for about two or three months each.
There are often rainy showers during this period but the Lake takes on an almost mystical appearance in the fog and the respite from the heat the showers bring is often welcome.
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| Culture |
Dinning
Hangzhou cuisine is currently one of the most popular and fashionable styles of cooking throughout China and especially in neighboring Shanghai. A wealth of "Hangzhou" inspired restaurants have shot up throughout the country and the cuisine from this city has been elevated to a superior status.
Hangzhou cooking is closely related to the local culture and characterized by natural flavor, beautiful presentation and a light and palatable taste. Dishes and pastries which would have once been served on pleasure boats sailing up and down the lake remain the main staple of the Hangzhou diet and recipes here usually contain a great deal of seafood including fish, shrimp, crab and oyster.
Any dining experience in Hangzhou should include at least a few of the following local specialties: Beggar's chicken (an entire chicken cooked in a ball of mud), West Lake fish (vinegar coated fish from the lake) and braised pork and stewed shelled shrimp cooked in Longjing tea.
There are some good restaurants in Hangzhou serving up this cuisine in nice settings and with style. Perhaps the best place is the Louwailou restaurant on Solitary Island, but there are other places dotted around. Late at night (ie. after 10pm) the area around Hangzhou's Fish Market really comes to life.
This market is tucked just behind the lake on Yan'an Lu. It is a fun area and bursting with life. The fish is thrown out of the nets in front of the restaurants round here and diners can hand pick what they want to eat! It is very fresh and usually tasty and there is a really local and lively atmosphere about this place. Don't worry if you don't speak Chinese- just point instead! Also worth checking out are the Buffets that many of the larger hotels do. The one in The Shangri- La is particularly good.
Shopping
Hangzhou is yet another Chinese "shopping paradise". The city offers a superb collection of local crafts, rare arts and other souvenirs.
Some typical Hangzhou specialties and souvenirs: Hangzhou Silk, Hangzhou Embroidery, West Lake Silk Umbrellas, Tianzhu Bamboo Chopsticks, as well as White Chrysanthemum Tea and world-famous Longjing Tea.
One great place to souvenir shop in Hangzhou is the market that opens every evening on Wushan Road. Here you can avoid the high prices at Hangzhou's many tourist shops. Bargaining is not only recommended, it is required! Bargain hard and you will go home with some great deals.
Also, Hangzhou has a great outdoor silk market called the China Silk City (Zhongguo Sichou Cheng) on Fengqi Lu that runs for two blocks.
This market street is long! Most of the silk is artificial (real is too expensive for most people), but most of the stalls will have some real silk.
If you are looking for something indoors and without the stress of bargaining, explore stores like the Hangzhou Friendship Store or the shops along Jiefang Road or Yan'an Road.
Entertainment
Hangzhou has a surprising amount of good little bars and clubs for a city of this size. The most popular evening past time remains, however, the typical Chinese experience of walking around or across the West Lake with your beloved in the moonlight. Watch out for the kids selling you red roses!
This kind of thing though, is not for everyone, especially those who are single! The city's nightlife at the moment tends to center around the Paradise Rock bar which is right next to the Overseas Chinese Hotel on Hubin Lu. The drinks in this bar are cheap, the decor is decent, the food is tasty and the live music is usually excellent.
Hangzhou is currently producing some of China's best live musicians and any night out on the town here will encounter either a planned or impromptu "jamming session". It makes for a great atmosphere in the bars and clubs and there is a great relationship here between the sizeable foreign student population and the local kids.
There are numerous other bars around town worth checking out including the Lake of Dreams on the southeast corner of the lake and the New L.A. Disco on Qing Chun Lu. This place even has a bouncy floor!
Hangzhou also has a few other entertainment attractions including two championship level tennis courts and a Golf club. As usual in the smaller cities in China, it's worth checking out the big hotels such as The Shangri-la to see if they have any events organized.
Hangzhou Features
Hangzhou has a long history and abundant products. Since ancient times, Hangzhou has been known as a "paradise for shopping" in southeast China, with a large number of pearls and silk shops, and merchants from all over the country. Hangzhou's silk, Dragon Well tea, porcelain ware produced in Guan Kiln of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), West Lake-brand silk umbrellas, Zhang Xiaoquan scissors, Wang Xingji fans and other traditional handicrafts have been well known both at home and abroad.
Longjing Tea
Longjing Tea is one of China's best tea and is one reason for Hangzhou's international fame. The tea is grown in the Longjing mountain area of Hangzhou, southwest of the West Lake. The flat and smooth tea leaves (resembling pine needles with a yellow to dark green color) brew a tea with light to dark green color, a fragrant scent, and a refreshing taste
Silk
Along with Suzhou, Hangzhou silk is the best in the world and has been since the Tang and Song Dynasties, a period of over 1,000 years. Between Hangzhou and Suzhou, Suzhou's embroidery is the best in China, and Hangzhou is known for producing excellent silks and satins. In Hangzhou, the variety of silks available seems endless. Hangzhou satin is famous and one of the area's most successful export products. The layered weaving process is very labor intensive and produces fabulously luxurious fabric that feels great next on the skin.
Hangzhou Brocade
Famed as 'the cloud in the sky and flowers on earth', it has been a wonder in arts and handicrafts in China. Hangzhou brocade handicrafts first appeared in Tang Dynasty. Today the brocade has two main varieties of decoration and daily use including the tapestry, tablecloth, bed cover and so on. The most famous products are produced by Hangzhou Du Jinsheng Brocade Factory which exported to over 80 countries and regions.
Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors
Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors are produced in Hangzhou City. In China, the brand Zhang Xiaoquan represents not only scissors, but also profound Chinese culture.
Made locally since the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1662-1723), Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors are reputed as the best scissors in China. More than 300 hundred years ago, the founder of Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors, Zhang Jiasi, adopted the techniques to make Zhejiang Longquan Sword, and innovated the skill of inlaying scissors with steel. The scissors he made was famous far and wide for their tartness and shininess.
Hangzhou Chrysanthemum
According to Chinese medicine, drinking Chrysanthemum Tea can cool and detoxify the body. Along with varieties from Anhui and Henan provinces, Hangzhou's White Chrysanthemum enjoys an excellent reputation as the best variety of this herb.
Chrysanthemum flowers are usually about half an inch in diameter and white or slightly yellow in color and are sold dried in plastic packaging. Soak some dried White Chrysanthemum flowers in hot boiled water for a few minutes and you will have a cup of light, fragrant and slightly sweet Chrysanthemum Tea. Another way to drink the tea is to add a little bit of sugar for extra sweetness.
West Lake Silk Parasols
West Lake Silk Parasols, also called as “West Lake Scenery Parasol”, is a unique product in Hangzhou. It is light, attractive, easy to carry and useful. Silk parasols are made of bamboo and silk. It looks very elegant and unsophisticated.
The first silk parasol was made by a worker named Zhu Zhenpei in 1930s. Soon, it became very popular because it a work of art with practical use. There are more than 10 categories of silk parasols, such as dancing parasol, rainbow parasol. Ladies looks charming with the West Lake Silk Parasols.
Dongpo Pork
Legend has it that in the Northern Song Dynasty, the noted writer Su Dongpo once organized a large-scale dredging program for West Lake. At that time he was the governor of Hangzhou. He asked his chefs to make some pork to reward the workers. People found the pork was well done and very delicious . Later people called it Dongpo Pork. Many local restaurants served Dongpo Pork. Now it has a history of over 900 years. It is featured by red and bright color, pure taste and thick juice, crisp but not broken and oily but not greasy.
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| City introduction |
Hangzhou, the City of the Lake
Hangzhou's legendary West Lake conjures images of sweeping willows and morning mist along the shores of China's most famous and revered of lakes.Heralded as one of the most romantic cities in China,Hangzhou is ripe with historic and sensual sites to enchant the amorous and curious who make their way here.
Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, covers an area of 430 square kilometers, inhabited by 1.3 million people, boasting a long history. State Wu, State Yue and Southern Song Dynasty once built their capitals here, making it one of the six ancient capital cities in China.
The West Lake of Hangzhou city, is like a shining pearl inlaid on the vast land of China, holding high reputation for its beautiful scenery, a multitude of historical sites, brilliant cultural relics and a profusion of native products.
Hangzhou's silk products have found their way to all over the world ever since Tang Dynasty. So did the elegantly fragrant high quality Longjing Tea, the ultimate product of all kinds of tea. Silk umbrella, scissors, Chinese traditional medicine, etc. are all noteworthy local products. Tourists from home and abroad are now exposed to a more splendid and more diversified landscape and historical sites in the south of the Yangtze River.
Quotes
"Every time l come to Hangzhou l feel relaxed. l really don't like living in Shanghai and want to move here, maybe get a small house with a view of the lake."
"lt's such a relief to come and shop here without the crowds. The lake and the people give me a special feeling, impossible to put to words. l have visited Hangzhou since l was a child. I feel a deep connection. That's why l visit it often on the weekend"
Transportation
By plane: Hangzhou, as the capital of Zhejiang province and one of China's premier tourism cities, Hangzhou has scheduled flights connecting flights to and from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Guilin, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Xi'an, Dalian and other major domestic Chinese cities. Also, Hangzhou offers flights to and from Hong Kong and Singapore. The airport is situated 27km of the town. A public bus costs RMB20 to the center of town. Large hotels may have free service to the airport, but this is, of course for guests only.
By train: Hangzhou is a large traffic terminal in eastern China. The city is the starting point for several routes such as Zhejiang-Jiangxi, Hangzhou-Ningbo, and the Zhejiang-Changsha lines as well as the end point for the Shanghai-Hangzhou line. Therefore, Hangzhou is connected with more than 30 large to medium sized cities by direct rail lines. The train station here has recently been renovated and is a huge but efficient place. It takes about 10 minutes from the center of town to the station, and costs approximately RMB20-30.
By boat: Along the Grand Canal, there are pleasant boat trips to Suzhou, or down to Fuyang, Wufan, Jiande, Lanxi and other cities in Zhejiang province along the Qiantang River.
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