Discover Hangzhou
Qiaoxi Historic District and the China Umbrella Museum
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.
The story
What makes this place special
Qiaoxi is the quarter on the west bank of Gongchen Bridge, at the southern terminus of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The bridge is around three hundred years old; the name means roughly 'hands clasped in respect to the imperial residence', and it was built to receive emperors travelling south. The district's fabric is late Qing and early Republican housing mixed with early industrial buildings - canal-side warehouses and factories - and it was inscribed as part of the Grand Canal World Heritage listing in 2014. The museums here are conversions: the China Umbrella Museum and the knife-scissors-sword museum were built inside the old Qiaoxi produce warehouses, alongside the Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum and the China Fan Museum.
What you’ll discover
The great stone arch of Gongchen Bridge over the canal, with barge traffic still using it, and behind it two old lanes - Qiaonong Street and Qiaoxi Direct Street - of whitewashed, black-tiled houses, tea houses and small shops. Along the canal frontage are the four converted warehouse museums, the umbrella museum being the most engaging: galleries on the history of Chinese oiled-paper and silk umbrellas with craftspeople demonstrating the making, bamboo-splitting, ribbing and papering, and a room where simulated rain falls.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- The four museums are all free, all in a row, and all in converted industrial buildings, which makes this the best-value couple of hours in Hangzhou. The umbrella and fan museums are the two to prioritise.
- Arrive or leave by canal boat. Hangzhou runs scheduled water buses along the Grand Canal between the city centre and Gongchen Bridge, which is cheap, is how the canal is meant to be experienced, and is faster than it looks.
- Watch the craft demonstrations rather than reading the panels. The umbrella and fan museums have working craftspeople, and in the umbrella museum they will let you try the bamboo work.
- Walk north from here to Xiaohe Direct Street, about a kilometre, which is the quieter residential version of the same canal district.
- Evening is good here: the bridge and the canal are lit, local people are out on the lanes, and there is none of the West Lake crowd.
When to come
Afternoon into early evening, when the museums are open and the canal is lit afterwards. Any season - the museums are indoors and the lanes are short.
Getting around
Good. The museums are purpose-converted buildings with lifts, ramps and level galleries, and the canal-side promenade is flat and paved. The historic lanes are flat but surfaced in uneven stone. The one real obstacle is Gongchen Bridge itself, a steep stepped stone arch with no ramp - crossing the canal in a wheelchair means using a road bridge or the water bus instead.
Worth knowing before you go
Arrive late afternoon, do the museums before they shut at 16:30, then take the canal water bus (a few yuan) back towards the city centre at dusk - it is public transport, not a tour boat, and far better value than the night cruise.
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