Amanfayun: a restored village and bath house below Lingyin
The address is the product. You are inside the Lingyin valley, walking distance from one of the most important Buddhist sanctuaries in China, in tea hills, rather than driving in from a city hotel. Being there before the temple fills is the real privilege.
Amanfayun pavilion nestled amongst lush greenery with warm interior lighting at dusk. · setting photograph, not a depiction of a private tour or package.
Picture your day
A 34-acre site in a wooded valley in the West Lake Scenic Area, about twenty minutes from central Hangzhou and six kilometres from the lake, built out of a former village: 47 stone dwellings, some more than a century old, along a hamlet lane with an entrance to Lingyin Temple at its northern end. The spa works in traditional Chinese treatments, heated bamboo massage, acupressure and cupping, with a bath house, a twenty-metre heated outdoor pool, and tai chi, yoga and meditation. Larger villas have private courtyards with twin massage rooms. Three village eateries run independently: a local-dish restaurant, a tea house pouring Longjing, and a vegetarian place by the temple.
The access, explained
No special access to the temple itself, and anyone claiming private access to Lingyin should be asked to prove it. What the location genuinely gives you is proximity and timing. Treat the published detail loosely: dwelling counts vary across sources between 42, 46 and 47, the spa is described both as five pavilions and as eight treatment rooms in a two-tier building, and airport transfer times are given as 50 minutes, 60 minutes and an hour and five. We could not retrieve the operator's own factsheet to settle any of it.
Planning the details
How to arrange it. Direct or through an agent; ask specifically whether you are in a village room on the lane or a courtyard villa, because they are quite different experiences, and whether the bath house and herbal bath are included in your package or charged.
When to go. Late March to May and October to November. The valley is humid in midsummer and the tea hills are at their best in April.
Ask for written confirmation of the date, duration, guide language, transport, admission and cancellation terms. Any restricted access must be confirmed by the venue.
The setting, in pictures & film
Videos open on their publisher’s site. YouTube is unavailable in mainland China; watch before travelling.
Good to know
Two honest notes. The main restaurant leans Western and European rather than local, which is odd in Hangzhou, so eat in the tea house and in the city. And the village is a reconstruction of a village: the stones are old, the arrangement is a hotel's. If you want Hangzhou itself, West Lake and the canal, you are twenty minutes out and will spend time in a car.