Your destination guide 杭州
Hangzhou
West Lake, and almost all of it free
An hour from Shanghai and gentle after Beijing. West Lake is free, Lingyin Temple became free in December 2025, and the whole city is walkable — the catch is that 'free' increasingly means a timed booking in a Chinese-language mini-program.
Getting there
Xiaoshan International (HGH), about 30 km east, on metro lines 19 and 7. Hangzhou East is the main high-speed hub, about an hour from Shanghai.
When to go
Late March to early May for peach and willow, and October to November for osmanthus and autumn colour at Lingyin.
How long: 3–6 days
Give it 3 days for the headline sights, or up to 6 to see it properly and eat your way around.
Three circles West Lake and reaches Lingyin. Six gets the tea villages at Longjing and Meijiawu, the canal quarter, Xixi wetlands and the Southern Song museums — this city is badly underrated on time.
Hangzhou and Suzhou: lake, gardens, and the easiest days in China
Two cities under an hour from Shanghai by train, both largely free to walk, and both with the fiddliest free-ticket bookings in the country.
A little forward planning
Book these before you go
Timed, passport-linked and capable of selling out. Full detail on the reservation radar.
West Lake 西湖
Bookable in EnglishOpens 0 days ahead · low sell-out risk
Make a few good memories
What to see in Hangzhou
Researched largely from Chinese-language sources, so it goes beyond the usual shortlist. Dollar figures are approximate, at the rate on 2026-10-08.
西湖
The lake that made Hangzhou famous: a UNESCO-listed landscape of causeways, pagodas and willow-lined banks that Chinese poets have been writing about for a thousand years. The whole shoreline is a free public park, so you can simply walk in at any point.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
苏堤春晓
A nearly 3 km tree-lined dyke built by the poet-governor Su Dongpo that cuts straight across the lake, crossing six arched bridges. It is the single best walk in Hangzhou and one of the classic Ten Scenes of West Lake.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
断桥残雪 / 白堤
The short northern causeway and its famous Broken Bridge, the setting of the Legend of the White Snake and the most photographed spot on the lake. It links the busy east shore to Gushan island.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
雷峰塔 / 雷峰夕照
A rebuilt five-storey pagoda on a hill at the lake's south-east corner, with lifts inside and the best elevated panorama of West Lake from its top gallery. The ruins of the original Song pagoda are preserved under glass at the base.
¥40
≈ US$5.96Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
三潭印月 / 小瀛洲
The island-within-a-lake garden printed on China's one-yuan note, reached only by boat. Three stone lanterns stand in the water offshore; on the mid-autumn full moon candles are lit inside them.
¥70 for the standard round-trip boat including the island ticket (island admission alone ¥20)
≈ US$2.98–10Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
曲院风荷
A free lakeside garden of linked lotus ponds, wooden walkways and arched bridges on the north-west shore. In July and August the lotus beds are the best in the city.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
花港观鱼
A large free park on the lake's south-west shore built around ponds of enormous red carp, with peony terraces and wide lawns. One of the Ten Scenes and the most relaxed of them, with real space to sit.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
孤山 / 平湖秋月
A low wooded island at the north of the lake holding the Zhejiang Provincial Museum's old hall, the Xiling Seal Engravers' Society and the waterside terrace of Pinghu Qiuyue. It is the cultural heart of West Lake and almost entirely free.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
灵隐寺 / 飞来峰
Hangzhou's great Chan Buddhist monastery, founded in 328 AD, set below a limestone outcrop carved with hundreds of Song-dynasty Buddhist figures and grottoes. Entry became free in December 2025, with timed reservations replacing tickets.
Free (previously ¥75 for the scenic area plus ¥30 for the temple)
≈ US$4.47–11Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
岳王庙 / 岳飞墓
The shrine and burial mound of Yue Fei, the Song general executed for resisting the Jurchen invasion and still a national symbol of loyalty. Kneeling iron statues of the officials who betrayed him stand outside the tomb.
¥25
≈ US$3.72Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
六和塔
A massive 59 m brick-and-timber pagoda from 970 AD standing above the Qiantang River, built to calm the river's notorious tidal bore. Climbing it gives a view over the river and the 1930s Qiantang River Bridge.
¥20 for the park, plus about ¥10 to climb the pagoda
≈ US$1.49–2.98Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
郭庄
A small late-Qing private garden right on the lake's western bank, with a water courtyard whose pavilions sit directly over the lake. Chinese garden enthusiasts rate it the best-preserved private garden on West Lake, and it costs almost nothing.
¥10 at the gate (¥8 booked online)
≈ US$1.19–1.49Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
浴鹄湾
A quiet reed-fringed inlet on the far western lake with wooden boardwalks, stone bridges and a classical pavilion, usually almost empty. Chinese travellers trade it as the 'cold' alternative to the packed east shore.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
九溪烟树 / 九溪十八涧
A 5.5 km stream valley in the hills behind West Lake where a Y-shaped creek runs between tea terraces and woodland. After rain mist rises off the trees, which is where the name 'Misty Trees of Nine Creeks' comes from.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
龙井村 / 梅家坞
The two villages that grow China's most famous green tea, surrounded by terraced tea gardens in the hills behind West Lake. You can walk the terraces for free and sit in a farmhouse teahouse drinking tea picked a few hundred metres away.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
中国茶叶博物馆
A free, well-made museum in the middle of the Longjing tea hills covering Chinese tea history, processing and ceremony, with two sites (Shuangfeng and Longjing) connected by tea terraces. The best explanation in the country of what you are drinking.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
浙江省博物馆 之江馆
The province's enormous new flagship museum, opened 2023, holding the 7,000-year-old Hemudu and Liangzhu finds, Song celadon and the Yuan painting collection. Free, uncrowded compared with West Lake, and the single best indoor option on a rainy day.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
良渚古城遗址公园
The UNESCO-listed capital of a 5,000-year-old jade-working state on the Yangtze delta, with reconstructed city walls, water systems and rice paddies spread over a huge park. It is the hard evidence for China's claim to five millennia of civilisation, and almost no English itinerary includes it.
¥80 (reported; includes the internal shuttle)
≈ US$12Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
西溪国家湿地公园
A vast managed wetland of ponds, fish farms and reed channels on the city's western edge, best seen from a punt poled through the waterways. Locals come for the persimmon trees in autumn and the plum blossom in February.
¥80 (boats and the helium balloon ride charge extra)
≈ US$12Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
南宋德寿宫遗址博物馆
An excavated Southern Song imperial palace displayed under a striking modern vermilion building, with projection-mapped reconstructions over the real foundations. Opened 2022 and a genuine phenomenon among Chinese visitors; virtually unknown in English guides.
Unconfirmed - reported as low-cost or free with reservation; check when booking
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
桥西历史街区 / 中国伞博物馆
The canal-side quarter beside Gongchen Bridge at the southern terminus of the Grand Canal, with a run of free museums on umbrellas, fans and knives-scissors-swords housed in converted factories. A quiet, genuinely local evening alternative to the lake.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
小河直街
A short restored canal street of whitewashed, dark-tiled Jiangnan houses where more than half the original residents still live. Far smaller and far less commercial than Hefang Street, which is exactly why locals send you here.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
上天竺法喜寺
A tenth-century temple up the Tianzhu valley behind Lingyin, said to be the origin of the White-robed Guanyin cult in China. Young Chinese visitors come for the temple's vegetarian noodles and its 'wish-granting' reputation; it keeps a working-monastery feel that Lingyin has lost.
Around ¥10 - confirm at the gate
≈ US$1.49Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
中国丝绸博物馆
The world's largest silk museum, at the foot of Yuhuang Hill, covering 5,000 years of Chinese sericulture with excavated textiles, live looms and a serious fashion gallery. Free, air-conditioned and rarely busy.
Free
Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
胡雪岩故居
The 1872 mansion of the Qing dynasty's most famous merchant-banker, a dense warren of carved halls, a rockery garden and imported stained glass. One of the best-preserved merchant houses in China and oddly quiet given it sits ten minutes from Hefang Street.
¥20 (reported)
≈ US$2.98Opening hours, booking and how to get there →
What to eat in Hangzhou
Hangzhou cooking (杭帮菜 / Zhejiang cuisine) is the opposite of Chongqing: sweet, lightly sour, soy-braised and almost never chilli-hot, with freshwater fish, river shrimp, bamboo shoot, preserved greens and Longjing tea running through everything. The two things that catch visitors out are sugar (braises are noticeably sweet) and bones — the classic West Lake fish and most river fish are full of fine Y-shaped pin bones. Vegetarians have a genuinely easier time here than in most Chinese cities thanks to Buddhist temple food around the lake and a long bamboo-and-bean-curd tradition, but 'vegetable' dishes are routinely finished with lard, chicken stock or dried shrimp, so say 不要肉、不要猪油、不要鸡汤. Shellfish is a real risk: dried shrimp (虾皮/开洋) is used as a background seasoning in soups, noodle toppings and even some vegetable dishes without appearing on the menu. Lakeside restaurants are tourist-priced; the better value is a Bib Gourmand noodle house or a neighbourhood 杭帮菜 place. Book the famous lakeside institutions, especially during the Qingming and National Day holidays.
West Lake fish in vinegar sauce
西湖醋鱼Xīhú cù yú
A whole grass carp poached briefly and napped with a clear sweet-sour sauce of vinegar, sugar, soy and ginger. An 800-year-old dish and the single most famous thing Hangzhou cooks.
Tastes like: Sour first, then sweet, then salty, with a delicate flavour said to recall crab meat
Not on the menu but in it: Sauce is thickened with starch and often uses a light chicken or fish stock; rice wine and sugar are heavy.
Might not be for you: Freshwater grass carp has a muddy, slightly earthy taste and is riddled with fine bones. It is served whole with the head on, and the texture is deliberately soft, almost underdone by Western standards. This is the Hangzhou dish most often disliked by visitors — try it once, knowingly.
Where to eat it
- Ru Yuan · Michelin Guide Hangzhou — two stars · ¥600–1200 · Hangzhou (check current address when booking)
- Zhiweiguan Weizhuang · Michelin Guide Hangzhou selection · ¥80–150 per person · Xihu district, on Yangong Causeway (杨公堤) on the west side of West Lake
- Louwailou (Gushan Road) · local institution · ¥145–250 per person · Xihu district, 30 Gushan Road on the north shore of West Lake, by Zhongshan Park
Where: The historic lakeside houses on the north shore of West Lake
Watch videos of West Lake fish in vinegar sauce →Dongpo pork
东坡肉Dōngpō ròu
A cube of pork belly tied with straw and braised slowly in soy sauce, rice wine and sugar until the fat is translucent and the skin glossy. Named after the Song poet Su Dongpo.
Tastes like: Deeply savoury-sweet, caramelised, rich but not cloying
Not on the menu but in it: Shaoxing rice wine and large amounts of rock sugar; soy sauce contains wheat.
Might not be for you: It is mostly fat by volume, with a soft, melting fat layer and skin that some find gelatinous. Portions are small for that reason.
Where to eat it
- Ru Yuan · Michelin Guide Hangzhou — two stars · ¥600–1200 · Hangzhou (check current address when booking)
- Zhiweiguan Weizhuang · Michelin Guide Hangzhou selection · ¥80–150 per person · Xihu district, on Yangong Causeway (杨公堤) on the west side of West Lake
- Louwailou (Gushan Road) · local institution · ¥145–250 per person · Xihu district, 30 Gushan Road on the north shore of West Lake, by Zhongshan Park
- Jin Sha · MICHELIN 1 star 2026 · ¥600–1200 per person · Xihu district, 1F Four Seasons Hotel at West Lake, 5 Lingyin Road, on the road out towards Lingyin Temple
Where: Any 杭帮菜 restaurant; the lakeside institutions do the canonical version
Watch videos of Dongpo pork →Pian'er chuan noodles
片儿川piàn'ér chuān
Hangzhou's everyday noodle bowl: wheat noodles in broth topped with snow-vegetable (pickled mustard greens), sliced bamboo shoot and slivers of lean pork. Over a century old.
Tastes like: Salty, savoury and clean, with a sour-crunchy edge from the pickled greens
Not on the menu but in it: Pork stock or chicken stock base and often a spoon of lard; the pickled greens are stir-fried with pork fat even in 'vegetarian' bowls.
Where to eat it
- Kui Yuan Guan (Jiefang Road) · MICHELIN Selected 2026 · ¥40–80 per person · Shangcheng district, 154 Jiefang Road, in the old city a short walk east of West Lake
- Wu Zi Mian Guan · MICHELIN Bib Gourmand 2026 · ¥30–60 per person · Shangcheng district, 116 Huansha Road, in the old city near West Lake
Where: Old noodle houses around Jiefang Road and the Bib Gourmand noodle shops
Watch videos of Pian'er chuan noodles →Stir-fried river shrimp with Longjing tea
龙井虾仁Lóngjǐng xiārén
Tiny peeled freshwater shrimp flash-fried with Longjing tea leaves and a little of the brewed tea, served pale green and barely seasoned.
Tastes like: Very delicate — sweet shrimp against a grassy, slightly astringent tea note
Not on the menu but in it: Shrimp are usually velveted with egg white and starch; some kitchens add a little lard for gloss.
Might not be for you: Extremely subtle — visitors expecting a strongly flavoured dish often find it bland for the price.
Where to eat it
- Ru Yuan · Michelin Guide Hangzhou — two stars · ¥600–1200 · Hangzhou (check current address when booking)
- Zhiweiguan Weizhuang · Michelin Guide Hangzhou selection · ¥80–150 per person · Xihu district, on Yangong Causeway (杨公堤) on the west side of West Lake
- Louwailou (Gushan Road) · local institution · ¥145–250 per person · Xihu district, 30 Gushan Road on the north shore of West Lake, by Zhongshan Park
- Jin Sha · MICHELIN 1 star 2026 · ¥600–1200 per person · Xihu district, 1F Four Seasons Hotel at West Lake, 5 Lingyin Road, on the road out towards Lingyin Temple
- Guiyu (Xihu) · MICHELIN 1 star 2026 · ¥500–900 per person · Xihu district, 2-1 Manjuelong Road, in the hills south of West Lake
Where: Lakeside and upmarket Hangzhou restaurants; spring is the season
Watch videos of Stir-fried river shrimp with Longjing tea →Beggar's chicken
叫化鸡jiàohuā jī
A whole chicken stuffed, wrapped in lotus leaves and clay, and baked for hours; the clay is cracked open at the table.
Tastes like: Mild, fragrant and herbal from the lotus leaf, with very soft meat
Not on the menu but in it: Stuffing commonly includes pork, ham (火腿), dried shrimp or mushroom; Shaoxing wine throughout.
Might not be for you: Served bone-in and shredded off the carcass at the table; the meat is falling-apart soft rather than roast-chicken firm.
Where to eat it
- Zhiweiguan Weizhuang · Michelin Guide Hangzhou selection · ¥80–150 per person · Xihu district, on Yangong Causeway (杨公堤) on the west side of West Lake
- Louwailou (Gushan Road) · local institution · ¥145–250 per person · Xihu district, 30 Gushan Road on the north shore of West Lake, by Zhongshan Park
Where: Banquet-style Hangzhou restaurants; usually needs ordering a few hours ahead
Watch videos of Beggar's chicken →Sister Song's fish broth
宋嫂鱼羹Sòngsǎo yúgēng
A thick, pale soup of shredded fish, bamboo shoot, mushroom and egg, sharpened with vinegar — a Song-dynasty recipe still on nearly every menu.
Tastes like: Sour-savoury and warming, with a silky, slightly gloopy body
Not on the menu but in it: Chicken stock base and often shredded Jinhua ham; thickened with starch.
Might not be for you: The thickened, gelatinous texture puts off some visitors; fine fish fibres throughout.
Where to eat it
- Zhiweiguan Weizhuang · Michelin Guide Hangzhou selection · ¥80–150 per person · Xihu district, on Yangong Causeway (杨公堤) on the west side of West Lake
- Louwailou (Gushan Road) · local institution · ¥145–250 per person · Xihu district, 30 Gushan Road on the north shore of West Lake, by Zhongshan Park
Where: Traditional Hangzhou restaurants around West Lake
Watch videos of Sister Song's fish broth →Braised bamboo shoots
油焖春笋yóumèn chūnsǔn
Spring bamboo shoots cut into wedges and braised in oil, soy sauce and sugar until glossy and dark. A spring speciality but served year-round.
Tastes like: Sweet-salty and glossy, with a crisp, slightly bitter, fibrous shoot
Not on the menu but in it: Frequently braised in a light meat stock or finished with lard; some kitchens add dried shrimp. Ask if you need it strictly vegetarian.
Might not be for you: Bamboo shoot has a faint bitterness and a stringy texture that is unfamiliar to many visitors.
Where: Any Hangzhou restaurant; best March to April
Watch videos of Braised bamboo shoots →Dried-vegetable pork belly
梅干菜扣肉 / 梅菜烧肉méigāncài kòuròu
Pork belly steamed over sun-dried preserved mustard greens, a dish shared with neighbouring Shaoxing, where the greens come from.
Tastes like: Salty, smoky-sweet, with a strong preserved-vegetable depth
Not on the menu but in it: Dark soy, sugar and rice wine; the greens are cured and very high in salt.
Might not be for you: Thick soft fat layer; the preserved greens have a pungent, almost tobacco-like smell.
Where: Home-style 杭帮菜 restaurants and anywhere advertising 绍兴菜
Watch videos of Dried-vegetable pork belly →Crispy lotus pastry
荷花酥héhuā sū
A layered flaky pastry shaped and coloured like a lotus flower, filled with sweet lotus-seed or red bean paste. A signature Hangzhou dim-sum-style sweet.
Tastes like: Mildly sweet, buttery-flaky shell with a smooth paste centre
Not on the menu but in it: The flaky pastry is traditionally made with lard, so it is often not vegetarian; some versions use vegetable shortening.
Where: Teahouse and lakeside restaurant dessert menus
Watch videos of Crispy lotus pastry →Dingsheng cake
定胜糕dìngshèng gāo
A small pale-pink steamed cake of glutinous and ordinary rice flour with a red bean paste centre, stamped with characters meaning 'certain victory'. Sold warm from street stalls.
Tastes like: Lightly sweet, soft and faintly chewy
Not on the menu but in it: none known — usually genuinely vegetarian, though some stalls add a little lard to the bean paste
Might not be for you: The sticky-rice texture is dense and gummy compared with Western cakes.
Where: Hefang Street (河坊街) and street stalls in the old town
Watch videos of Dingsheng cake →Drunken river shrimp or crab
醉虾 / 醉蟹zuì xiā / zuì xiè
Live or raw freshwater shrimp (or cured crab) steeped in Shaoxing rice wine, salt and spices and eaten cold, without cooking.
Tastes like: Sweet, briny and strongly alcoholic
Not on the menu but in it: Heavy rice wine content — not suitable for anyone avoiding alcohol, including halal diners.
Might not be for you: The shrimp may still be twitching when served, and the whole thing is raw. There is a genuine parasite and food-safety risk with raw freshwater shellfish; most visitors should skip it.
Where: Traditional Zhejiang restaurants — approach with caution
Watch videos of Drunken river shrimp or crab →Hangzhou sauced duck and cured meats
酱鸭 / 酱货jiàng yā
Duck cured in soy sauce and air-dried over winter, then steamed and sliced cold or warm. A winter household staple sold by the piece in markets.
Tastes like: Intensely salty-sweet and soy-dark, with a concentrated, almost jerky-like meatiness
Not on the menu but in it: Very high salt; cured with rice wine and sugar.
Might not be for you: Chopped through the bone, so splinters are normal, and the saltiness is far stronger than Western cured meat.
Where: Wushan Road and old-town markets, especially November to January
Watch videos of Hangzhou sauced duck and cured meats →Where to eat in Hangzhou
- Dianping (大众点评) — the real ratings. Chinese only, but photos, prices and a 4.5+ score survive translation. Its 必吃榜 "Must-Eat" list is the mainstream benchmark.
- Black Pearl (黑珍珠) — China's own fine-dining guide, published annually by Meituan and taken more seriously domestically than Michelin.
- Michelin covers only a few Chinese cities, so its absence means nothing outside them.
- Xiaohongshu (小红书) — what is actually busy this month, rather than this year.
Jin Sha (Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake) 杭州西子湖四季酒店·金沙厅
¥800–1500≈ US$119The city's top fine-dining room for refined Hangzhou and Cantonese cooking, with a signature crisp-skin chicken.
What to order, booking and allergens →
Jie Xiang Lou 解香楼
¥600–1200≈ US$89Two-Michelin-star refined Zhejiang cooking, one of only two two-star restaurants in the city.
What to order, booking and allergens →
Ru Yuan 如院
¥600–1200≈ US$89Two-Michelin-star Zhejiang restaurant known for precise, seasonal cooking in a garden-style setting.
Order: West Lake vinegar fish (西湖醋鱼), Sauteed shrimp with Longjing tea leaves (龙井虾仁) and 1 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
Zhiweiguan Weizhuang 知味观·味庄
¥80–150 per person≈ US$12The garden branch of Hangzhou's best-known old restaurant brand, in pavilions over the water on Yangong Causeway on the quieter west side of West Lake. Unlike the chain's snack shops in the city centre, this one is a proper sit-down Hangzhou restaurant, and it is the most efficient single stop for the full canon of local classics at a sane price. The setting does a lot of the work, and reviews are honestly mixed on the cooking.
Order: Dongpo braised pork (东坡肉), Beggar's chicken (叫化鸡) and 3 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
Louwailou (Gushan Road) 楼外楼（孤山路店）
¥145–250 per person≈ US$22Founded in 1848 on the shore of West Lake beside Gushan, this is the single most famous restaurant in Hangzhou and the place every tour bus stops at. It has fed state banquets and visiting dignitaries for generations and its name is effectively shorthand for Hangzhou cuisine. Be clear-eyed: it is a large, busy, coach-tour institution with queues on public holidays and prices well above what the cooking alone would command, and you are paying partly for the lake view and the history.
Order: West Lake vinegar fish (西湖醋鱼), Dongpo braised pork (东坡肉) and 3 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
Kui Yuan Guan (Jiefang Road) 奎元馆（解放路店）
¥40–80 per person≈ US$5.96Hangzhou's most famous noodle house, trading on the same Jiefang Road site since 1867 and hung with inscriptions from the writers and opera stars who ate here. The ground floor is a fast, functional noodle hall; the first floor is a calmer restaurant doing Zhejiang dishes. For a visitor it is the single best-value hour of eating in the city, and the place to settle what pian er chuan actually is.
Order: Pian er chuan noodles with pickled greens, pork and bamboo shoots (片儿川), Noodles with prawns and eel (虾爆鳝面) and 2 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
Shi Wei Xian (Shangcheng) 食为鲜（上城）
¥100–200≈ US$15A well-priced neighbourhood Hangzhou restaurant doing the home-style classics well.
Order: Braised soft-shelled turtle with pickled cabbage (雪菜甲鱼), Quick-poached pork kidney (爆炒腰花) and 1 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
Wuzi Noodle House 伍子面馆
¥20–50≈ US$2.98A cheap, famous noodle shop in the Bib Gourmand list, good for a single-bowl lunch of pian'er chuan.
What to order, booking and allergens →
Jin Sha 金沙厅
¥600–1200 per person≈ US$89The Chinese restaurant of the Four Seasons Hotel at West Lake, set in a classical-style pavilion among gardens and water on Lingyin Road. The kitchen sources seasonally from across China and plays Zhejiang classics straight but lighter and more precisely than the old houses do. The weekend dim sum lunch is the easiest way for a visitor to eat here without committing to a long dinner.
Order: Braised pork belly, Dongpo style (东坡肉), Xiaolongbao with crabmeat and crab roe (蟹粉小笼包) and 2 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
Longjing Manor (Dragon Well Manor) 龙井草堂
¥800–1500 per person≈ US$119A walled Chinese garden of stone bridges and ponds down a lane off Longjing Road, deep in the tea hills, with only eight private rooms and no public dining hall. The kitchen is built around obsessive ingredient sourcing and poetically named Jiangnan dishes, and the meal opens with soy milk made that morning, sweet or savoury, with small side dishes. This is the closest thing Hangzhou has to a food pilgrimage, and it feels nothing like a restaurant.
Order: Double-boiled duck soup with cordyceps flower (虫草花炖鸭汤), Freshly made soy milk with side dishes (现磨豆浆配小碟) and 1 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
Guiyu (Xihu) 桂语山房（西湖）
¥500–900 per person≈ US$74A sleek, low-lit dining room standing in an osmanthus forest on Manjuelong Road, one of the prettiest corners of the West Lake hills and spectacular when the osmanthus flowers in autumn. The kitchen's signature move is tea-smoking, and there is a tableside tea service that is genuinely theatrical rather than decorative. Book a terrace table in good weather.
Order: Tea-smoked crispy-skin chicken (茶熏脆皮鸡), River fish with dried bamboo shoots (笋干河鱼) and 1 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
Ye Long Jing 野龙井
¥150–250 per person≈ US$22A handsome old mansion standing among working Longjing tea farms on Longjing Road, in the valley of winding creeks west of the lake. The cooking is country-style Jiangzhe: freshwater fish and shellfish, farm vegetables and comforting Hangzhou standards, served in rooms that balance rustic and polished. Pair it with a morning walking the tea terraces at Longjing village or Meijiawu and it makes the best half-day out of the city centre.
Order: Fried river shrimp in Sichuan pepper and chilli sauce (椒麻河虾), Fried mochi with sugar and ground peanuts (糖油花生糯米糍) and 1 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
Wu Zi Mian Guan 吴字面馆
¥30–60 per person≈ US$4.47A small noodle shop on Huansha Road that opened in 2017 and has become the most talked-about bowl in the old city, run by a trained chef rather than a family operation. It does Hangzhou noodles both ways, in broth or dry with sauce and toppings, and the toppings are the point. Ten minutes from the lake and the cheapest Michelin-recognised meal you will eat in Hangzhou.
Order: Pork kidney and liver noodles (腰肝面), Noodles with shrimp and eel (虾爆鳝面) and 1 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
Xiao Lao Hun Tun 小老馄饨
¥20–40 per person≈ US$2.98A one-room wonton shop down an alley off Ziyang Street near the Drum Tower in the old city, marked only by a yellow flag. The owner retired in 2016, went and learned to make wontons properly, and opened this. Fresh pork, vegetables picked that morning, black sesame and dried shrimp in the broth, and a plate of potstickers on the side: the cheapest and most local breakfast or late lunch in this guide.
Order: Fresh pork and vegetable wontons (鲜肉菜馄饨), Potstickers (锅贴) and 1 more
What to order, booking and allergens →
See Hangzhou
Other people's videos, on YouTube — we link, we don't host. Worth knowing: YouTube is blocked in mainland China, so watch these at home, or download them in the YouTube app before you fly.
- what to do in HANGZHOU, CHINA vlog | west lake, street food, han fu, pagodaA first-time visitor walks West Lake, eats street food, rents hanfu and climbs a pagoda over a few days in Hangzhou.livansi · opens on YouTube
- 2 Days in Hangzhou 🇨🇳 | West Lake, Local Food & Things to DoA tight two-day Hangzhou itinerary filmed on location, centred on West Lake plus local restaurants and practical things to do.ivyluvv · opens on YouTube · Auto-generated subtitles
- Walking Around West Lake🌿—The Beauty，Stories，and Surprises of Hangzhou｜Hangzhou, China｜Chinese vlogsA Chinese-speaking local walks the West Lake shoreline and tells the legends and small surprises along the way, with hand-made subtitles in a dozen languages.talkinchinese_redred · opens on YouTube · In Chinese, with English subtitles
- Vlog White noise｜Immersive Lingyin Temple Journey With A Local｜ 沉浸式游灵隐寺Vlog白噪音｜Hangzhou China中国杭州An ambient, narration-light walk through Lingyin Temple with a Hangzhou local, showing the grottoes, halls and incense crowds as they actually are.LuLu · opens on YouTube · In Chinese, no subtitles
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