It’s been a long time since I last wrote one of these “one-day” itineraries, and this time it’s for one of the cities I know best. During last year’s National Day holiday, I played “tour guide” and took a good friend on a light tour around Hangzhou, which led to this route that I think turned out quite nicely.

06:00 Daisecan Tian

West Lake in the early morning belongs to the brave souls who get up before dawn. There are plenty of places around the lake to catch the sunrise. The best-known is the top of Gemstone Hill, where you can take in both the graceful waters of the lake and the Hangzhou skyline at once. But waking up early to hike uphill, only to find there may not even be a good spot left, might be a bit much.

My favorite hidden sunrise spot at West Lake is a lesser-known corner of Maojiabu.

A small bridge links the two banks, and beside it stands an old-fashioned pavilion bearing the inscription “Daisecan Tian”. It likely comes from Du Fu’s line, “Dark green rising to the heavens, two thousand feet high.” Around West Lake, even the scenic spots come with literary pedigree.

Even on holidays, Maojiabu is far quieter than other parts of the lake. The blue hour before sunrise brings out West Lake’s gentlest side. Mist keeps curling across the water, giving the whole place an almost otherworldly feel.

This is also a training base for water sports, so along with the sunrise come kayaks slipping out from under the bridge one after another.

After sunrise, take a walk through Maojiabu along the wooden boardwalk. In the old days, pilgrims heading to Lingyin to burn incense would often disembark here after arriving by boat. The pier used to be lined with taverns and teahouses, bustling with arrivals and departures—a complete contrast to today’s calm.

A quiet stroll among the trees, soaking in the refined beauty of West Lake, makes for a perfect morning.

07:30 Pian’erchuan at Louwailou

Ride back from Longjing Road to Beishan Road, then turn onto Gushan Road—this is easily the best stretch of cycling around West Lake. The lake opens up like a slowly unfurling scroll painting. It’s fantastic.

Get to Louwailou before 8 a.m. and grab a bowl of pian’erchuan. Hangzhou noodles aren’t what they used to be, but this is still a bowl I keep going back to. You line up with retirees fresh from their morning exercise, pay RMB 10, collect your ticket and chopsticks, find a seat, and wait for your number to be called.

The noodles arrive piping hot. The noodles themselves are a bit soft and the broth slightly oily, but the flavor almost doesn’t matter. What you’re really eating is the feeling of everyday neighborhood life.

A bowl of noodles that has stayed at RMB 10 for years feels like a small gesture of warmth toward longtime local regulars.

09:00 Lingyin and Yongfu

Burning incense is the new sexy; the crowd density at Lingyin Temple probably beats Guangzhou’s Tiyu Xilu by now.

To enter Lingyin, you need to buy two separate tickets, but what many people don’t realize is that there’s also a free temple inside the scenic area: Yongfu Temple. The name is auspicious, too.

Once you enter, vegetarian noodles are on the left and a coffee shop is on the right. Commercialization has arrived, but in a way that feels just about right. Pilgrim, start with an extra-large cup, then follow it with an extra-large bowl.

Yongfu Temple was rebuilt about twenty years ago, and many of the details show that the people behind the reconstruction had real aesthetic taste.

Climb the steps upward and you’ll find different Buddhist halls built into the hillside, with a view of West Lake from the top.

On the way back down along the stream, you can also stamp a large seal in the Buddhist hall, carved by a noted master from Xiling.

Come late autumn, Yongfu Temple is also one of Hangzhou’s best spots for fall foliage, not far behind Kyoto’s Eikando.

10:30 Fajing, Fajing, and Faxi

Coming down from Yongfu Temple and passing Amanfayun, you’ll come across a gate inscribed with “Little Western Heaven,” echoing Lingyin Temple’s “Western Heaven Within Reach.” There’s something special about this stretch of road.

We continue our temple tour here. Along this road, three temples sit not far from one another: Fajing Temple of Lower Tianzhu, Fajing Temple of Middle Tianzhu, and Faxi Temple of Upper Tianzhu. Faxi is the most famous of the three, with the biggest scale and the strongest incense offerings. In the past, Faxi Temple was just a place where I’d stop for a bowl of vegetarian food during a long-distance hike. Somehow, it has become hugely popular.

We skipped Fajing Temple because it would have required a few extra minutes of detouring to the left. Who knows whether the Buddha would blame us for being less than fully sincere.

Compared with Fajing Temple, where there were mainly older women rushing forward, Faxi Temple had the full grandeur of a major temple. There were so many worshippers that volunteers were on hand to manage the crowds—and this was back in October of last year.

Two good friends offered prayers sincerely using the free incense handed out at the entrance. By year-end, one had bought into a newly launched luxury home project worth tens of millions of RMB, and the other had successfully started a relationship. Apparently the Buddha didn’t mind those few steps we skipped.

In fact, tucked deeper beside Faxi Temple is another ancient temple, Zhongyin Chan Temple. It now serves as a graduate school for a Buddhist academy and is no longer open to the public. But this little path nearby is where the monks take their post-dinner walks, and in late autumn the maple leaves here are beautiful.

14:00 Hiking the Hills Around West Lake

There aren’t many lunch options nearby, and expectations for flavor aren’t especially high anyway, so you might as well head back down into town.

The main event in the afternoon is hiking. If you’ve come all the way to Hangzhou, you should climb at least a few hills. My alma mater holds its famous endurance hike around the hills of West Lake every spring and fall, and it has become a tradition—something like the Oxford-Cambridge boat race.

Of course, we don’t need to be quite that hardcore. That’s one of the pleasures of hiking in Hangzhou: wherever you go, you can always find a stretch that suits the season and makes for an enjoyable outing.

In spring, for example, tea is the obvious theme in Hangzhou, so Longjing is the place to go. Walk past sprawling tea fields, get intoxicated by the fragrance of tea, then sit down and savor a cup of pre-Qingming or pre-Grain Rain fresh tea. Life hardly gets better than that.

In autumn, head to Manlong Guiyu. The name tells you everything. We happened to be there in just that season, sitting in a mountain café where every deep breath was filled with osmanthus fragrance, sipping a seasonal osmanthus latte.

Along the way we met an elderly local woman and went over to help her vigorously shake an osmanthus tree, sending down a shower of sweetness.

Even in the sweltering heat of summer, you can still find a pocket of coolness in the bamboo groves of Yunqi Bamboo Path.

All in all, hiking around West Lake is one of those essential Hangzhou experiences you really shouldn’t miss.

16:00 Nine Creeks in Misty Forest

No matter where you start your hike, I highly recommend—really, insist if I may—that you come down via Nine Creeks in Misty Forest.

I once walked into the Nine Creeks and Eighteen Gullies area in early spring. The green of a waterfall reflected in the water, and the air carried that poetic sense of spring arriving before the old year had fully passed. It felt intensely Kyoto-like, if “Kyoto-like” can be used to describe a particular fleeting mood.

I’ve also been to Nine Creeks in late autumn—shivering with cold, yet greeted by a burst of blazing, glittering color.

This time was my first time entering Nine Creeks at dusk. Under the dim yellow streetlights, the winding path felt both lonely and warm.

18:00 West Lake Sunset

Rise with the sun, rest at sunset—our day followed that same cycle too, tracing a full circle around West Lake.

Compared with the quiet of sunrise, watching the sunset over West Lake from the Nanshan Road lakeside is a much livelier affair. With the rhythm of a live band from the lakeside restaurants in the background, I hope everyone gets to watch the sunset here with the person they love.

And if you’re lucky enough, like I was last year, to catch one of those tender, lingering summer sunsets, that really is a stroke of great fortune.

Even if the weather is bad that day, don’t worry—congratulations, you’ve just gotten a misty, rain-washed West Lake instead. So often, you only truly understand lines you read as a child after seeing a place for yourself. Here, for example: “Whether richly adorned or plainly dressed, it is always fitting.”

Food

The following two categories aren’t really my area of expertise, so I can’t offer much deep analysis—I’m just sharing a few small places I’ve personally visited.

Hangzhou coffee shops:

Zidong Woxi (often called one of Hangzhou’s best specialty coffee shops, and the coffee really is quite good)

Hexia Coffee (I really love the atmosphere of this quaint little shop by the canal)

Tieshou Coffee Workshop (it has a small courtyard filled with bamboo, and among the three Tieshou locations in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, this one is my favorite)

Shanshe Coffee (the best choice for an osmanthus latte in Manlong Guiyu)

Hangzhou food: Hangzhou often gets mocked as a food desert, and honestly, I don’t really know where to eat either, haha. I even took friends to Xin Bailu once, and I still feel like I kind of let them down.

I’ve heard that some of the more upscale Chinese restaurants inside hotels are quite good—such as Jin Sha Ting at the Four Seasons, Hubin 28 at the Grand Hyatt, and Ziwei Hall at the State Guest House—but I still haven’t tried them myself.

As for some of the popular, supposedly down-to-earth local spots that get a lot of buzz online, like Deming Restaurant, I strongly recommend avoiding them on public holidays. The quality is really hard to count on.