Hangzhou is located in the southeast coast of China and the lower reach of the Qiantang River, 180 kilometers away from Shanghai. It is the capital of Zhejiang Province as well as one of the seven ancient capital cities in China.
Hangzhou has a long history. Since its establishment as a county in the Qin Dynasty, it has witnessed a history of more than 2200 years. Hangzhou is one of the cradles of Chinese civilization.
Hangzhou is renowned for its historic relics and natural beauty. It has been ranked as one of the ten most scenic cities in China. The widely expressed Chinese proverb, "in heaven there is paradise and on earth there are Hangzhou and Suzhou" combined with the words of Marco Polo who described this place as, "Most beautiful, magnificent, and heavenly city in the world" have helped Hangzhou to become one of the biggest tourist attractions in the entire country.
Area Code: 0571 Zip Code: 310000 Location: located on the southeastern coastline of China, bounded to the northwest and southwest by hills; to the northeast and southeast by Zhebei Plain Climate: semitropical monsoon climate with mild and moist weather and four distinct seasons; yearly average temperature is 16.2°C and annual average rainfall of 1,450 mm Area: 16,847 km² Population: 7.731 million
dining
Zhejiang cuisine is one of the eight famous culinary schools in China. Hangzhou cuisine, as an important part of Zhejiang cuisine, is noted for its choice of fine ingredients, elaborate preparation, appealing appearance, refreshing taste and varying techniques of cooking. Su Dongpo, a celebrated poet of the Northern Song, once praise that cuisine in Hangzhou was the best under the heaven.
Any dining experience in Hangzhou should include at least a few of the following local specialties: Beggar's chicken, West Lake Fish in Sweet and Sour Sauce and Dongpo Pork and Longjing Shelled Shrimp.
Dongpo Pork
With a history of more than 900 years, this dish was first created by Su Dongpo, a well-known writer and poet of the Song Dynasty when he served as a local official of Hangzhou. It is said that Su Dongpo made this dish to encourage people to dredge up West Lake. Dongpo Pork is red and bright in color, oily but not greasy, crisp but not smashed, plus mellow juice.
West Lake Fish in Sweet and Sour Sauce
Prepared with fresh and alive grass carps from the West Lake, this dish integrates delicious, sweet and sour tastes, with tender fish meat, which tastes just like crabmeat.
Beggar's Chicken
There’s a legendary story connected to it. Long long ago there was a beggar. One day he stole a chicken and was pursued by the owner. To prevent the cooking smells from attracting attention, the beggar first wrap the chicken with lotus leaves and then smeared it with mud before he bake it in a fire. After a long time, when he cracked open the clay outside the chicken, to his astonishment, the chicken emanated delicious smells. Since the cooking method was invented by a beggar, hence the name beggar’s chicken. The dish tastes tender and crisp, and easily off the bones.
Longjing Shelled Shrimp
Longjing Shrimp is a typical famous dish in Hangzhou. It selects fresh shrimps from local rivers and cooked with new Longjing tea picked up around Qingming Festival. The shrimps are white and fresh while the tealeaves are green and have good smell. Taste it, the tender and fresh shrimp is accompanied the light fragrance of the tea.
Longjing Tea (Dragon Well Tea)
Longjing Tea tops the ten renowned teas in China. It is grown in the Longjing mountain area of Hangzhou, southwest of the West Lake, hence the name. Longjing tea is known for its greenness, fragrance, mellow taste, and beauty of tea leaves.
Longjing tea has a long history of over 1000 years. The written history of it could date back to the first book on tea in the world, Chajing (Tea Classic), written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.).
Longjing tea benefits health in many ways regardless of your age. It is used to deter food poisoning, refresh the body, stop cavities, fight viruses, control high blood pressure, lower the blood sugar level, and to prevent cancer. Hence, Longjing tea is regarded as the elixir for health and is widely sold and accepted all over the world.
Longjing Tea can be bought throughout Hangzhou, but the best place to buy it is the Longjing area in Hangzhou. The tea there is said to be the best Longjing available. If you are not acquainted with tea, a tea expert is especially needed when you purchase Longjing tea.
shopping
Hangzhou is yet another Chinese "shopping paradise". The city offers a superb collection of local crafts, rare arts and other souvenirs.
One great place to souvenir shop in Hangzhou is the evening market on Wushan Road. There are a variety of items and gifts for the young and old. The price offered by the seller is often high, so bargaining is especially required! Start the bargaining with a low price, and get tough but not too tough. Losing something you want over a few RMB is just not worth it.
China Silk City, an outdoor silk market located on Fengqi Road, is the best place to buy silk. Covering an area of 25,000 square meters, it is the only silk wholesale and retail market in China. It contains over 600 silk enterprises of a wide variety of pure silk fabric, silk garment, silk handicraft articles, scarves, ties and silk materials. Since the real and artificial silk all sold here, so distinguishing skill is important.
Yan’an Road, bordering Wulin Square in the north, is said to be the Number One Street in Hangzhou and the city's commercial center. With a total length of 3405 meters, this street contains many important commercial centers and culture and recreation places such as Zhejiang Provincial Great Hall of the People, Hangzhou Culture Center, Victory Theatre, International Mansion, Hangzhou Department Store, etc.
entertainment
The recreation life of Hangzhou people is full of contradiction. Some people like to play cards and drink tea in Meijiawu and Longjing village while some like to make them intoxicated in the bars in Nanshan Road. Some appreciate quiet scene along the West Lake but some favor the clamor in clubs. No matter what you like, you can find your own place in this charming city.
Bars
It is estimated that there are more than 270 bars distributing all over Hangzhou. They mainly situated around Nanshan Road, Wushan Road and Huanglong commercial center. Bars with different flavors have become a distinctive feature of Hangzhou nightlife.
Cinema & Theater
Hangzhou has many cinemas. Instead of the traditional large-size cinemas, these cinemas are mostly movie supermarkets with multiple halls or small-sized showing halls. There is a large choice of movies projected in cycles. There are also all-night movies. An ordinary ticket of a single movie costs about 15 RMB (except latest and great movies).
Teahouses
People in Hangzhou have a long history of drinking tea. Actually, the teahouse is an epitome of the culture in the city. As early as in the Song Dynasty, the teahouses were already scattered all over the city, and most of them had exquisite environment for people to stay and pass their time. Nowadays, Tea Bar has become one of the main leisure places for people to spend their spare time. People went to the teahouse not only for drinking tea, but also for whiling away the time. Shuguang Road is a famous Tea House Street in Hangzhou.
Coffee Bars
Now there are over 300 Coffee Bars in Hangzhou. Most of them are top grade and in fashion with unique decoration and furnishings. Located on Nanshan Road are the most luxurious coffee bars and Beishan Road gathers coffee bars with the most beautiful scenery. There are other large or small coffee bars scattering over Hangzhou.
transportation
Airport
Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport is built on the southern shore of Qiantang River in the Xiaoshan district and is 27km away from downtown Hangzhou. It is an important airport for trunk line and international scheduled flight of China. It is also the largest airdrome of Zhejiang province and the main alternative landing airport of Shanghai Pudong International Airport
The construction of the airport began in July, 1997, and it was opened to navigation on December 30, 2000. At present, it has open 126 airlines to 59 cities, in which 44 are in China, and served for foreign airlines to Hongkong, Macao, Bangkok, Seoul, Pusan, Singapore, Tokyo, Osaka, etc.
Railway Station
Hangzhou has two train stations, one is New Hangzhou Station (Chezhan Railway Station) and the other is Hangzhou East Station. The two stations are 7 kilometers from each other and is connected by No. K518 bus.
Located near Jiangcheng Road, New Hangzhou Station is normally serves as the initial station from many trains. You can reach there by 11, K11, 151, K7 and other buses. Hangzhou East Station is located near Tiancheng Road. It is only an intermediate station for passing-by trains.
Hangzhou is connected with more than 30 large to medium sized cities by direct rail lines. It is the starting point for several routes such as Zhejiang-Jiangxi, Hangzhou-Ningbo, and the Zhejiang-Changsha lines as well as the end point for the Shanghai-Hangzhou line.
Bus
As an important tourism city, Hangzhou has a good public transportation. There are more than 278 bus routes in Hangzhou with the buses going virtually everywhere in the city proper. The bus number is important. Buses numbers prefixed by “K” are air-conditioned. Buses numbers prefixed by 3 and 5 are running to the neighboring rural areas and special lines, respectively. Tourism buses are indicated by a Chinese “游” (means travel) are tourism buses. All the tourism buses are air-conditioned and cost 2 yuan.
Nearly all the buses in Hangzhou are Automated Collection Bus. No charge will be returned to you. So enough charge, normally one or two RMB, should be prepared before you get on the bus.
Taxi
In Hangzhou, the taxies charge (except the luxurious cars such as Benz) 10 RMB for the first 3 kilometers and 2 RMB is charged for each additional kilometer within 10 kilometers and 3 RMB a kilometer beyond 10 kilometers. 2 RMB per 5 minutes is charged for waiting. An extra 1RMB will be charged for the fuel recently.
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