Hangzhou with a night: two days for West Lake, Lingyin Temple, the tea hills, Xixi wetlands and the lake show

Our Hangzhou day trip guide is the single most-read page on this site, and the question it leaves is whether to stay the night. The answer, for anyone with the time, is yes: Hangzhou at dawn and after dark is the Hangzhou of the poems, the day-trippers leave at five, and the second day opens the temple, the wetlands and the tea hills properly. This is the two-day version, which is also the one the honeymoon guide and the slow travel guide build on.

Why stay

West Lake is a different place at 6.30 am (mist, fishermen, tai chi on the causeway, nobody) and at 7 pm (the lights on the pagoda, the lakeside promenade with the city out walking) than at noon, when the coaches are in. A night in a lakeside hotel gives you both. And Hangzhou has more than the lake: the greatest Buddhist temple in eastern China, a tea-growing valley inside the city limits, a wetland park of canals and reed beds, and a food tradition that is the gentlest in the country.

Getting there and staying

Trains from Shanghai Hongqiao reach Hangzhou East in 45 to 60 minutes, every few minutes; the train guide has the booking. From the station the lake is 25 minutes by taxi or metro. Stay on the lake: the west and south shores (around Yanggongdi and the Longjing road) are quieter and greener, with the big resort hotels among the trees; the east shore is the city side, with the lakeside promenade and the shops. The Hangzhou hotels run below Shanghai prices, as the budget guide notes. A tea-village guesthouse in Longjing or Meijiawu is the rustic alternative.

Day one: the lake and the tea

Morning. Arrive by nine; drop bags; walk or cycle the Su Causeway from the south end, 2.8 km of willows and six bridges across the lake, with the tea hills on the right and the city on the left. At the north end, Gushan island with the Zhejiang Museum and the Xiling Seal Society’s gardens, then along the Bai Causeway to the east shore. Allow three hours with stops; the public bikes and the electric boats shorten it.

Lunch at a lakeside restaurant: Lou Wai Lou on Gushan is the famous one (West Lake vinegar fish, Dongpo pork, beggar’s chicken baked in clay, Longjing shrimp), touristy and fine; a guide knows the quieter ones in the Longjing valley.

Afternoon: the tea. A car into the Longjing valley fifteen minutes from the lake: the terraces, the China National Tea Museum (free, excellent, with a tasting), a farmhouse where the family roasts the leaves in a wok in front of you, and a cup on their terrace. The tea guide explains Dragon Well; late March to April is picking season (the spring guide), and autumn is the quiet, golden time.

Evening. The lake promenade at dusk, Leifeng Pagoda lit on the south shore, and the Impression West Lake show, Zhang Yimou’s open-air performance on the water itself at the north shore, an hour of lights, dancers and the lake as stage, booked ahead and worth it once. Dinner after, late, near the hotel; the nights guide is Shanghai’s version of this evening.

Day two: the temple and the wetlands

Early. The lake at dawn from the hotel or the causeway, before breakfast; this is the hour that makes the overnight worthwhile.

Morning: Lingyin Temple. The “Temple of the Soul’s Retreat”, founded in 326 AD, is among the largest and wealthiest Buddhist temples in China, in a wooded valley west of the lake: the Hall of the Great Hero with its 25-metre camphor-wood Buddha, the 500 arhats in the Hall of Five Hundred, and across the stream Feilai Feng, the “Peak Flown from Afar”, a limestone crag carved with over 300 Buddhist figures from the 10th to 14th centuries, the laughing Buddha among them. Arrive at opening (7 or 7.30 am) to see it with the monks rather than the crowds; allow two to three hours; the vegetarian restaurant does lunch. The temples guide has the etiquette.

Afternoon: Xixi wetlands. A national wetland park on the city’s west edge, 11 square kilometres of waterways, reed beds, persimmon orchards and old villages, seen by electric boat or on foot; quiet, green, and a complete change from the lake. Two hours. Alternatively, Hefang Street, the rebuilt old street at the foot of Wu Hill with the Hu Qingyu Tang traditional pharmacy museum, the silk shops and the snacks, for anyone who prefers shopping to reeds; the tax refund guide covers the silk.

Evening. A train back to Shanghai in under an hour, or onward: Hangzhou East has direct high-speed trains to Beijing (4.5 to 5 hours), Huangshan (1.5 hours, as the Huangshan guide notes), and Nanjing, which makes the overnight a natural hinge in a longer route.

When to go

Spring for the blossom and the tea, autumn for the osmanthus (Hangzhou’s city flower, scenting the whole lake in October) and the clear light, winter for the empty causeways and a dusting of snow on the bridges, which is the most painted view in China. Summer is hot and the lotus beds on the lake’s north shore are in flower, which almost compensates, as the summer guide admits. Avoid weekends if you can; Hangzhou is Shanghai’s weekend lake.

Food to order

West Lake vinegar fish (grass carp in sweet-sour sauce), Dongpo pork (braised belly named for the Song poet-governor who built the causeway), beggar’s chicken, Longjing shrimp (stir-fried with the tea leaves), and the Hangzhou-style noodles; the sweet lotus-root with sticky rice and the osmanthus cakes for dessert. The regional food guide places Hangzhou’s cooking with Jiangnan’s.

With a guide

The two days are easier with a car (the temple, the tea valley and the wetlands are spread around the lake’s west side) and a guide who books the show and knows the tea family. We run the overnight on the Shanghai essentials tour as an extension and as a day guide booking over two days; tell us on the contact page and we will fit it into the route.