What the Eifel Tower is to Paris, the West Lake is to Hangzhou!

Today, I would like to tell you about a trip we did at the beginning of our stay.

The West Lake is located in the West of the city centre in Hangzhou, it’s a large lake that has influenced Chinese culture for hundreds of years – You can even see West Lake on the back of the 1 RMB bill!

Still, some of you might say “Ah, a lake? Tell me something new!”. Well, to me the West Lake is to Hangzhou, what the Eifel Tower is to Paris. When you come here, maybe for the first time, you HAVE TO see it, but eventually you will start to move on to other destinations.

As the number 1 tourist spot, especially the eastern shore next to the city centre is usually crowded but the further you go, the less people will be around, still I won’t promise too much. If you are visiting on the weekend for example, all big sights around West Lake will be crowded.

Either way this lake is a must see, we clearly recommend you go when there are less people around – a weekday morning for example.

So, as many other people before us, one of our very first trips in Hangzhou was to the West Lake.

The best way to reach it is by taking the metro, I recommend leaving at the station Longxiangqiao. Most travel guides just tell you to go west from there but I doubt that you know where west is – you should be able to see a big Apple store maybe 50 meters from the exits C1 to C4 of the metro station (by the way, it is the biggest Apple store in Asia!). For the West Lake you have to follow that road for maybe 5 minutes, then you are there.

At the water side, there is also the water fountain show. This show is for free and can be enjoyed at 10:00, 11:00, 16:00, 16:30, 19:00, 19:30, 20:00, 20:30 and 21:00 every day. On weekends and public holidays there are additional shows at 15:30 and at 21:30. I saw this show the first time I was in Hangzhou and recommend you to see it in the evening when it becomes dark but don’t come to late – it was very crowded when I was there.

You can definitely also enjoy the wonderful scenery of West Lake from here. You might want to turn right to go to the Baochu Pagoda or the Broken Bridge in the north, but on our trip we decided to take a left and went along West Lake with the Leifeng Pagoda set as our destination.

Along the eastern shore you will – as mentioned before – see many tourists. Of course there are also many locals who live from these tourists, so you can find little food shops, convenience stores and also people who sell baked apples as well as other baked fruits here. Some will also try to sell you other cheap stuff: little hair clips with leaves, cloverleafs and other similar things were very popular, with many people around there selling these.

Please pay attention and don’t fall into the tourist traps. On hot days they will also try to sell little hand fans, they might look typically Chinese, you’re told they are handmade but in the end it comes out that the quality is rather cheap – at a price of 5 RMB you might not care after all, but just saying!

In this area you can also see and hear people singing traditional Chinese music. If you have never seen that before and you are lucky, you can see a good performance here. Keep in mind, if a street musician is good enough to make you stop on your way because you enjoyed the music, you owe him a buck. Pay attention whether and how much other people around you tip the musician but normally we tip between 1 and 5 RMB depending on how good the music is. But as mentioned before, you actually have to be lucky to see a good performance there. Some of them are not exactly good, still they use loud speakers so everybody around has to ‘enjoy’ their music.

This and the crowd around you might make you want to leave this place but please don’t go too far!

The path at the shoreline around West Lake will take a right soon and at this corner you can find the restaurants “The Grandma’s” and “Green Tea” there. Both restaurants can actually be found all over Hangzhou, they are very famous for regional cuisine. A dinner here is actually quite cheap but at the same time you will have to expect a waiting time. We recommend you to come here, get a number and if the waiting time is too long, just go ahead and take another walk along West Lake and come back in some time. The tickets usually have a QR code, you can scan them using WeChat to see when it will be your turn!

Another option would be to use the application “Meiwei Buyongdeng” (美味不用等). With this application you can reserve a table at some restaurants around here without having to be there so you can plan when you would like to eat there.

In this location, there is also this magnificent pavilion which can be seen in many pictures of West Lake.
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After taking many pictures here, we decided to go on on our way towards Leifeng Pagoda. We went through a beautiful park with a beautiful scenery.

He's probably the only one who is allowed to take a bath in Westlake - I'm really jealous!
He’s probably the only one who is allowed to take a bath in Westlake – I’m really jealous!
Some of these parks here look like nobody touched them for years!
Some of these parks here look like nobody touched them for years!

The chinese obviously want to make their parks look ancient. They would probably be successful if it wouldn’t be for the masses of tourists that are passing through here every day. Either way, it’s still possible to find places which can turn of the stressful environment and often lead to amazing pictures.

The downtown of Hangzhou is getting smaller in the distance
The downtown of Hangzhou is getting smaller in the distance
While we are getting closer and closer to Leifeng Pagoda!
While we are getting closer and closer to Leifeng Pagoda!

After some time we finally reached the Leifeng Pagoda. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to go up to take a look around because we still wanted to see the old city of Hangzhou which I will cover in another post.

I actually regret a little bit to not go up - the view up there must be amazing!
I actually regret a little bit to not go up – the view up there must be amazing!

This was our first trip to westlake!
Have you been here before? How do you like the scenery? You are invited to comment below, we are happy to discuss and answer any questions!

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