West Lake's willows, pagodas and tea hills
Hangzhou has been praised by Chinese poets for a thousand years, and West Lake, a UNESCO site, is the reason: causeways lined with willows, arched bridges, pagodas and temples reflected in calm water. Walk or cycle the Su and Bai causeways, visit the Lingyin Temple with its Buddhist rock carvings, and climb to the Leifeng Pagoda. The hills west of the lake grow Longjing (Dragon Well) green tea, which you can taste in villages such as Meijiawu. It is a short high-speed train ride from Shanghai.