Hangzhou travel guide

Top 10 sights in Hangzhou

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© Louisa Salazar · CC BY-SA 3.0

   West Lake

   A freshwater lake of 6.39 square kilometres west of Hangzhou's old walled city, 3.2 km north to south and 2.8 km across. Four causeways and three man-made islands divide the water, and the Leifeng and Baochu pagodas face each other from the south and north banks. UNESCO listed it in 2011.

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2. 

   2© Windmemories · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Liuhe Pagoda

   An octagonal brick and wood pagoda of 1156 on Yuelun Hill above the Qiantang, built to calm the river's tidal bore, which still runs up the estuary at speed each autumn. Its thirteen apparent storeys conceal seven real ones, and each ceiling panel is carved differently.

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3. 

   3© lienyuan lee · CC BY 3.0

   Leifeng Pagoda

   A five-storey pagoda on Sunset Hill south of West Lake, first built in 977 and collapsed in 1924, rebuilt in 2002 over the excavated base, which is shown under glass. It is the setting of the Legend of the White Snake, and sunset over it is one of the ten scenes of West Lake.

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4. 

   4© Denis Yuen · CC BY-SA 2.5

   Lingyin Temple

   A Chan temple founded in 326, one of the largest and wealthiest in southern China, named for the Indian monk who called this the place where immortals hide. Feilai Peak beside it carries about 340 rock-cut Buddhist figures from the tenth to fourteenth centuries.

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5. 

   5© Fredlyfish4 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   China National Tea Museum

   A museum among the Longjing tea terraces devoted to tea — its cultivation, processing and the ceramics and etiquette that go with it. Longjing, the green tea grown on these hills, is picked here in early April and can be drunk in the villages nearby.

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6. 

   6© Siyuwj · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Yue Fei Temple

   A temple around the tomb of Yue Fei, the Song general executed in 1142 after being recalled from a winning campaign. Kneeling iron statues of the officials who destroyed him stand in a courtyard where visitors spat on them for centuries; a screen now prevents it.

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7. 

   7© Yumeto · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Baochu Pagoda

   A slender seven-storey pagoda on Precious Stone Hill north of West Lake, first built in 963 and rebuilt in 1933, forty-five metres high on a narrow base — which is why it looks so thin. It is one of the defining silhouettes of the lake.

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8. 

   8© 猫猫的日记本 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Phoenix Mosque

   A mosque in Hangzhou founded in the Tang period and rebuilt in 1451, and one of the four great mosques of China. Its brick prayer hall of three domed bays survives from the Yuan period, when Arab and Persian merchants lived in this city in numbers.

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9. 

   9© Sh1019 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Hupao Spring

   A spring and park in southwestern Hangzhou, ranked the third finest water in China, and the water traditionally used to brew Longjing tea. Its surface tension is high enough that coins float on it, which the tea houses demonstrate.

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10. 

    10© LukeLOU · CC BY-SA 3.0

    Zhejiang Provincial Museum

    The provincial museum of Zhejiang, whose core is the Neolithic material of the lower Yangtze — Liangzhu jades and the Hemudu rice-farming village of about 5000 BC. Its Gushan galleries stand beside West Lake and admission is free.

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1. 

   1© Tyg728 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Jingci Temple

   A Chan temple of 954 at the foot of Nanping Hill, the second great temple of West Lake after Lingyin. The evening bell of Nanping, rung here, is one of the ten classical scenes of the lake, and Leifeng Pagoda is directly opposite.

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2. 

   2© MasaneMiyaPA · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Hangzhou Mosque

   A large mosque in Hangzhou administered by the city's Islamic association, serving the Hui community and Muslim traders and students. It is among the larger mosques in eastern China.

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3. 

   3© Siyuwj · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Hu Qing Yu Tang

   A traditional Chinese medicine hall and pharmacy founded in 1874 by the merchant Hu Xueyan, and one of the most important centres of the trade in the late Qing. The dispensary still works, and the buildings hold a museum of medicine with a herb-processing workshop.

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4. 

   4© Siyuwj · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Kuahuqiao

   An early Neolithic site of the Kuahuqiao culture in Xiaoshan district, about eight thousand years old, excavated from 1990. It produced the oldest known dugout canoe in China and evidence of the earliest deliberate rice cultivation in the Yangtze delta.

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5. 

   5© Zhangzhugang · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Liangzhu Museum

   A museum northwest of Hangzhou devoted to the Liangzhu culture of about 3300 to 2300 BC, whose walled city and jade working made it one of the earliest states in East Asia. The site became a World Heritage listing in 2019 and the museum is by David Chipperfield.

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6. 

   6© Siyuwj · CC BY-SA 4.0

   China National Silk Museum

   The national silk museum, the largest devoted to silk anywhere, in a city that was a terminus of the silk trade. Its galleries run from Neolithic silk fragments to modern textiles, with weaving demonstrated on working looms, and admission is free.

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7. 

   7© Huandy618 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Hangzhou Zoo

   A zoo at the foot of the hills south of West Lake, moved here from the lakeside in 1975 and spread over some twenty hectares of wooded slope. South China tigers, giant pandas and native deer are among the animals kept.

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8. 

   8© Xalixsa · CC BY 3.0

   Hangzhou Botanical Garden

   A large public botanical garden on the hills west of West Lake, founded in 1956, with about three thousand species in themed sections including bamboo, osmanthus and a bonsai garden. Trails connect it to the tea terraces above.

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9. 

   9© MasaneMiyaPA · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Wulin Square

   A square in Xiacheng district served by its own metro station, ringed by department stores, and the commercial centre of Hangzhou. West Lake is a short walk downhill from it.

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10. 

    10© Huandy618 · CC BY-SA 3.0

    West Lake Cultural Square

    A square of 36,000 square metres in Xiacheng district, built in 2002, combining a science and technology museum, performance venues and shopping. It sits at the northern end of the city's cultural axis.

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