Hangzhou: What to Actually Do
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The main guide ranks Hangzhou’s 9 best things in order; this one is about how to actually do each of them, the booking, the timing, and the cost, so nothing surprises you on the day.
Walk West Lake, don’t try to see all of it
West Lake itself is free: the lake, the Su and Bai causeways, Solitary Hill, no ticket at any of it. Don’t try to walk the full roughly 15-kilometer shoreline loop in one day; it’s a bigger commitment than it looks on a map. Pick a stretch, the Su Causeway (built 1074 by poet-official Su Dongpo) or the Bai Causeway (built 822 by poet Bai Juyi, a different builder about 250 years earlier), walk it slowly, and take the boat (¥55-70) to Three Pools Mirroring the Moon rather than trying to circle the whole lake on foot.
Book the Lingyin Temple slot before anything else
Lingyin Temple and the Feilai Feng grottoes went free on 1 December 2025, but only through a mandatory real-name, timed reservation via the Alipay or WeChat mini-program, booked 1-7 days ahead with a daily cap. This is the one activity on this list that fails outright if you don’t plan for it; a walk-up visit can simply be turned away. The temple dates to 328 CE, Feilai Feng carries more than 300 rock carvings including the well-known laughing Maitreya, and the complex rewards a full half-day rather than a rushed hour.
Taste Longjing tea where it’s actually grown
Meijiawu and Longjing tea villages, both free to wander, sell real West Lake Longjing green tea straight from the growers, with tastings running ¥10-80 a cup. Ask for the Mingqian grade if you’re visiting in early spring, picked just before the early-April Qingming festival; picking season itself runs March through May. This is a morning activity, not an afternoon add-on, since the villages are quieter and the growers more willing to talk before the tour buses arrive.
Take the Grand Canal night cruise, separately from the lake
A Grand Canal night cruise from Gongchen Bridge runs around ¥100. Hangzhou is the canal’s southern terminus, and the canal carries its own UNESCO listing from 2014, a different site and a different year from West Lake’s 2011 Cultural Landscape designation. Do this as an evening activity after Hefang Street, not as a substitute for the lake.
Visit the free museums when your feet need a break
The China National Silk Museum and the China National Tea Museum are both free and both genuinely worth an hour each, not just a rain-day fallback. The Silk Museum is the largest of its kind in the world; the Tea Museum gives context to the tea village visit if you do them in that order.
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For the same activities laid into day-by-day plans, see the 2-day or 3-day itinerary , or the day trips guide for what to do once the city core is covered.