Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang province and its political, economic and cultural center. With its famous natural beauty and cultural heritages, Hangzhou is one of China's most important tourist venues.The City, the southern terminus of the Grand Canal, is located on the lower reaches of the Qiantang River in southeast China, a superior position in the Yangtze Delta and only 180 kilometers from Shanghai.

Accommodation
As a city with scenic tourist destinations and a rich cultural heritage, there are many hotels within the heart of the city. Hotels are normally near the West Lake, at major shopping and food districts. They provide modern accommodations ranging from basic to luxurious and it is usually easy to find available rooms at any hotels.

Luxury Hotels
Luxury hotels such as Shangri-La, Hyatt Regency, and Zhejiang Narada Grande (formerly known as Zhejiang World Trade Center Hotel) provide world-class facilities and services ranging from complimentary broadband Internet access, car and bicycle rental, to beauty and child care. They enjoy an ideal location near West Lake and within the heart of shopping and business districts.

Shangri-la and Hyatt Regency offer rooms with a splendid view of West Lake, and are perfect for couples as a romantic getaway or for business travelers to relax in the scenic tranquility. They are beautifully furnished with an elegant ambience. On the other hand, Zhejiang Narada Grande has been listed as one of the “Top Ten New Sights of Hangzhou Urban Architecture”. Exquisitely designed, the hotel revels in classic Chinese architecture with styles inspired by the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. Chinese calligraphies and paintings adorn the walls of the hotel, allowing visitors to appreciate ancient Chinese art.

　China’s most picturesque setting, Four Seasons reveals an intimate lakeside village, melding centuries of tradition with chic contemporary style. Convenient to business and shopping, discover a tranquil enclave, woven with ponds, streams and lagoons. Experience the gentle spirit of Chinese hospitality in exclusive private dining rooms and resort-style recreation, including two swimming pools and a cutting-edge designer spa. Deftly sophisticated Four Seasons care instills confidence and delight.

Standard hotels
Though they do not enjoy the glamorous reputation of internationally renowned hotels, four-star standard hotels such as Hangzhou Xinqiao Hotel (Xinqiao Fandian), Zhijiang Hotel and Hangzhou Hotel provide excellent accommodations that meet the needs of a regular traveler. They reside within the city’s main districts and are usually a stone’s throw away from West Lake. Rooms are comfortably furnished; there are constant warm showers, and the hotels boast elegant banquet halls with continental breakfasts. The hotels also feature lavish restaurants that offer Zhejiang specialties, Cantonese dishes and fresh international seafood.

Hostels
Warm and snuggly, the Hangzhou International Youth Hostel (Ming Tang) is a place where guests are welcomed with vibrant smiles while relaxing in a comfortable environment. There are two types of rooms, ensuites and mixed dorms: the ensuites are designed and furnished with Ming and Qing dynasty styles, come with personal toilets and a private classical Chinese balcony; while the mixed dorms are homely with a locker, bookshelf and reading lamp for every bed. There are also water dispensers at hallways, security doors, laundry room, a self-service kitchen with a view of West Lake and an open balcony garden where guests can have their meals in spring and summer. As such, the hostel’s logo Ming Tang is inspired by the grand halls of the Ming dynasty, where guests are warmly welcomed and attended to.

A café and bar with wooden panels and country furnishings create a soothing ambience where guests can enjoy jazz music and idle conversations. Such an atmosphere must definitely be accompanied with fine imported liquor and cocktails served at the bar while the café offers delicious meals, pastries, sandwiches and drinks. At the end of the café, dimly lit lamps and soft cushions serve as a cozy, quiet corner for guests to relax after a long day. At the reception area, guests are allowed to use the Internet booths free or simply get connected through the free Wi-Fi service in the café. English books are also available for browsing and a billiard table sllows guests to mingle and play.
Services at the hostel include warm showers within certain times, luggage storage, 24-hour reception, towels, paid shuttle buses from hostel to bus, airport and train stations, and cab call service. If you do not know how to get to the hostel upon arrival in Hangzhou, do give them a call for directions.

Accommodation
As a city with scenic tourist destinations and a rich cultural heritage, there are many hotels within the heart of the city. Hotels are normally near the West Lake, at major shopping and food districts. They provide modern accommodations ranging from basic to luxurious and it is usually easy to find available rooms at any hotels.

Luxury Hotels
Luxury hotels such as Shangri-La, Hyatt Regency, and Zhejiang Narada Grande (formerly known as Zhejiang World Trade Center Hotel) provide world-class facilities and services ranging from complimentary broadband Internet access, car and bicycle rental, to beauty and child care. They enjoy an ideal location near West Lake and within the heart of shopping and business districts.

Shangri-la and Hyatt Regency offer rooms with a splendid view of West Lake, and are perfect for couples as a romantic getaway or for business travelers to relax in the scenic tranquility. They are beautifully furnished with an elegant ambience. On the other hand, Zhejiang Narada Grande has been listed as one of the “Top Ten New Sights of Hangzhou Urban Architecture”. Exquisitely designed, the hotel revels in classic Chinese architecture with styles inspired by the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. Chinese calligraphies and paintings adorn the walls of the hotel, allowing visitors to appreciate ancient Chinese art.

Standard hotels
Though they do not enjoy the glamorous reputation of internationally renowned hotels, four-star standard hotels such as Hangzhou Xinqiao Hotel (Xinqiao Fandian), Zhijiang Hotel and Hangzhou Hotel provide excellent accommodations that meet the needs of a regular traveler. They reside within the city’s main districts and are usually a stone’s throw away from West Lake. Rooms are comfortably furnished; there are constant warm showers, and the hotels boast elegant banquet halls with continental breakfasts. The hotels also feature lavish restaurants that offer Zhejiang specialties, Cantonese dishes and fresh international seafood.

Hostels
Warm and snuggly, the Hangzhou International Youth Hostel (Ming Tang) is a place where guests are welcomed with vibrant smiles while relaxing in a comfortable environment. There are two types of rooms, ensuites and mixed dorms: the ensuites are designed and furnished with Ming and Qing dynasty styles, come with personal toilets and a private classical Chinese balcony; while the mixed dorms are homely with a locker, bookshelf and reading lamp for every bed. There are also water dispensers at hallways, security doors, laundry room, a self-service kitchen with a view of West Lake and an open balcony garden where guests can have their meals in spring and summer. As such, the hostel’s logo Ming Tang is inspired by the grand halls of the Ming dynasty, where guests are warmly welcomed and attended to.

A café and bar with wooden panels and country furnishings create a soothing ambience where guests can enjoy jazz music and idle conversations. Such an atmosphere must definitely be accompanied with fine imported liquor and cocktails served at the bar while the café offers delicious meals, pastries, sandwiches and drinks. At the end of the café, dimly lit lamps and soft cushions serve as a cozy, quiet corner for guests to relax after a long day. At the reception area, guests are allowed to use the Internet booths free or simply get connected through the free Wi-Fi service in the café. English books are also available for browsing and a billiard table sllows guests to mingle and play.
Services at the hostel include warm showers within certain times, luggage storage, 24-hour reception, towels, paid shuttle buses from hostel to bus, airport and train stations, and cab call service. If you do not know how to get to the hostel upon arrival in Hangzhou, do give them a call for directions.

Dining

Hangzhou Popular Dishes and Specialties (what to eat in Hangzhou)

Typical dish of Hangzhou cuisine are many traditional homely dishes and reminiscent flavors like West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy, Braised Dongpo Pork, Beggar"s Chicken, Longjing Shrimp and Hangzhou Soy-sauce Duck. These traditional and reminiscent dishes are regarded by Hangzhou locals as "Cuisine of Mom".

West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy
The lake, the canals and the nearby ocean guarantee fish, shrimp and other seafood as staples in the cuisine. Perhaps the most famous fish dish of Hangzhou cooking is West Lake Fish in Vinegar Gravy. In this dish, a fresh alive grass carp is firstly kept hungry in clear water for one to two days to rinse well, and then it is cut in half from head to tail but not separated, delicately poached and then served eyes-up and topped with a sharp sweet and sour, vinegar-based sauce. This dish integrates delicious tastes, with tender fish meat like crabmeat.

Hangzhou Soy-sauce Duck
Hangzhou soy-sauce duck is a type of marinated duck. It is the typical flavor and adopted the traditional methods of the folk. The ducks are chosen from those stout and strong and good ones, and then are pickled and topped with soy-sauce. Well processed ducks usually in the bordeaux color are fragrant. They taste a bit salt and tiny sweet.

Beggar"s Chicken
The beggar"s chicken is a traditional Chinese, especially Hangzhou, as popular with tourists as with far eastern gourmets. Main materials of this dish call for a chicken, leaves and pond mud. When the chicken is packed with delicate fillings, it is the lotus leaf and mud wrapping that makes this chicken so tasty, tender and intriguing.
Beggar"s Chicken has interesting stories just like other typical dishes of Hangzhou. The legend about the beggar"s chicken is a Hangzhou thief invented it. As he had no stove, he wrapped the stolen bird in clay and baked in a hole in the ground. Then the taste of this chicken is so charming that the cooking methods went round widely from then on.

Braised Pork Belly or Dongpo Pork
Dongpo Pork is a specialty of Hangzhou with very crispy outside. The name "Dong po" comes from the medieval Chinese poet, who was named Su Dongpo. Dongpo Rou (Chinese pronunciation) refers to braised pork belly.
It is usually served as a 2 inch cube of pork in individual clay lidded pot. Being braised with soy and sugar and spices, it is very soft and juicy, and also very tasty. One of the special flavorings in Braised Dongpo Pork is Shaoxing Wine – a kind of yellow rice wine. It also needs take at least 4 hours to get the best results when making Dongpo Pork. It is done when the fat, skin, and meat are easily pierced with blunt chopsticks. At this time Dongpo Pork is red and bright in color, oily but not greasy, crisp but not smashed, plus mellow juice. It is usually served with plain rice or steamed buns and accompany with some greens or vegetables.

Longjing Xia Ren or Dragon Well Tea Shrimp
Longjing Xiaren is fried shrimp in Longjing tea. People in Hangzhou cooked the fresh shrimp with characteristics: fresh and special taste and faint scent. The shrimps after rinsed should be marinated in a tablespoon of Shaoxing wine (a kind or yellow rice wine usually used in cooking). By the same time the Longjing tea leaves should be brewed in boiling / hot water and then they will expand to huge leaves, and you need to keep the tea to use in stir-frying. It is famous for infused with the aromatic and high priced Longjing tea and this dish pleases people"s palate with lingering fragrance of the tea and the crunchy texture of the shrimp.
Famous Restaurants

Other Hangzhou specialties include Stewed Duck with Dried Bamboo Shoots, Crab Stewed with Spiced Leaves, yutiao or fried dough sticks, Hangzhou Noodles with Pork and Bamboo Shoot, Long Jin tea leaves cooked with shrimps, braised fish soup, West Lake fish in vinegar sauce, etc.

Not to forget, a wonderful dining experience must be followed by good beers such as Tsingdao and West Lake beer (Xihu jiu 西湖酒).

ZhiWeiGuan (知味观): As a saying regarding this old reputable restaurant goes, “the aroma is so luring that visitors stop in their tracks to have a look” (zhi wei ting che, wen kan xia ma知味停车，闻香下马). ZhiWeiGuan specializes in creating avant-garde dishes unique to the restaurant and is a perfect place to go if you are looking for something fun and interesting.

- Address: 83 Renhe Road.
- Tel: +86 571 87065871.
- Opening hours: 6am-11pm.

Green Tea Restaurant (绿茶): Made of wooden stilts and thatched roofs, this restaurant offers guests a refreshing getaway from city life with its traditional setting and modern amenities. It has house specialties such as barbequed prawns, exquisite Longjing Tea and spicy peppered fish with a fresh flavor.

- Address: 83 Longjing Road, near the China National Tea Museum.
- Opening hours: 11am-1am; 10.30am-2am on weekends and public

Shopping

Cultural Shoppingg

Visitors walking along the street will also be attracted to the local handicrafts such as having clay figurines of your image made in fifteen minutes, zisha or earthenware teapots with ornamental hand cravings and glass bottles with Chinese paintings painted on the inside. Zisha or clay earthenware is widely used in China to brew and serve mostly black tea, Oolong tea and Pu Er tea. Its first use dates back to as early as the Song dynasty. During brewing, the teapot absorbs a tiny amount of tea and prolonged usage of it eventually retains the flavor of the tea. Zisha teapots are also valued in the market for their exquisite handicrafts since it takes years of practice to produce a teapot of fine quality that ensures a smooth control of tea during pouring. The art of painting from the inside of a glass bottles is also another craft that takes patience and time. Visitors will be intrigued by the lovely Chinese paintings of pandas, mountains and flowers painted skillfully on the interior of the glass bottles by artists using delicate, tiny brushes. As such, Hefang Street is a perfect place to buy unique handicrafts as souvenirs.

Hangzhou Silk City at 253 Xinhua Road, near Fengqi road is an ideal place to shop for silk products. There are more than 600 shops carrying a wide range of silk, from fabrics to clothing, bags, shoes, handicrafts and so on. Many of these shops also export to countries worldwide and the market is known for its fine quality and reasonable prices.

According to folklore, silk was discovered by Empress Leizu, wife of the legendary Yellow Emperor or Huangdi. It is not known if the reign of Huangdi really existed but it is said that he ruled from 2697 BC to 2597 BC. As the story goes, Empress Leizu and Huangdi lived during a time when clothes were still made out of animal skins. One day, while taking a walk in her garden, Leizu noticed some silkworms feeding on the leaves of the mulberry trees in the garden and spinning cocoons that seemed to be made up of fine threads. She took one cocoon home and dropped it into a pot of boiling water whereby a fine thread started to unwind from it. Upon closer examination, Leizu realized that she could unwind the thread continuously from the cocoon and decided to collect several more samples. Day and night, she worked and experimented till she succeeded in spinning and weaving garments from it. Realizing that this would provide clothing for the people, Leizu persuaded her husband to grant her a trove of mulberry trees where she could rear silkworms and went on to invent the first silk reel and silk weaving loom. From then on, the people did not have to rely on animal skins as clothing and Leizu has since been revered as the founder of silk.

Modern Shoppingg

The major shopping streets are Jiefang Road, Yan’an Road and Wulin Gate/Square, Wushan Square. Luxurious brand such as Hermes, Versace and Giorgio Armani can be found near the West Lake. Shops such as Vero Moda, Only and Adidas are also located nearby. Wulin Road is every female’s paradise where stores carrying female fashions line the street.

The entire Yan’an Road is a common shopping area. There are two squares at the two end of the road, and many small stores are on the road between the two squares.

Wulin Square: At the northern end of Yan’an Road and surrounded by several large stores -- Hangzhou Tower, Hangzhou Department Store, In Time Department store (Wulin Square Branch), and GDA Palaza. This is a shopping paradise for every female as shops here carry a wide variety of ladies’ style and fashion.

Wushan Square: At the southern end of Yan’an Road. There are also several big store such as Hangzhou Jieba Department Store, In Time Department store (West Lake Branch), Yuanhua Department Store.

Jiefang Road

Jiefang Road, traversing the downtown of Hangzhou, is another traffic artery in Hangzhou, connecting East City Ring Road with the intersection of Nanshan Road and Hubin Road. Scond only to Yan'an Road, it is the also an important business street, and a wonderful place to pan out your favorite goods. On May 3rd 1949, the road got its name and started its life. Many old-established shops can be found here, such as Hengdeli Clock & Watch, Maoyuancang Glasses, Zhangxiaoquan Scissors, Zhiweiguan Restaurant and so on. All these old shops compete with each other in order to get survived in Jiefang Road. Moreover, some new brands are unwillingly to be outdone and begin to burgeon. Nevertheless, the sports franchised stores like Nike, X-Tep, Jeanswest etc. have shown the vibrant view of Jiefang Road and attracted more people here.

Yan'an Road

 Yan'an Road is called "Hangzhou First Street", intersected with Kaiyuan Road, Jiefang Road, Pinghai Road, Qingchun Road and Fengqi Road, in a length of 3405. It is a traffic artery and at present the busiest shopping street in Hangzhou. Along the street there is Provincial Great Hall of People, Menglianglou Restaurant, Nanfang Restaurant, International Department, Hangzhou Department Store and many other commercial centers and entertainment venues. The South part targets at young people with many leisure apparel brands.

Joining up with Wulin female fashion street, the north part of Yan'an Road not only displays other worth-buying clothes, but also forms a unique style of leisure and fashion. Wulin Square is at the end of the north of Yan'an Road, where lots of big business centers are located, namely Hangzhou mansion. Wulin Square is favored by businessmen and the local citizens.