West Lake
Centuries of careful cultivation have turned what was originally a lagoon adjoining the Qiantang River into the most famous lake in China. One of the country’s principal tourist attractions, West Lake is classical China at its mist-shrouded, willow-lined, pagoda-dotted best, and is almost everybody’s primary reason for visiting Hangzhou. Three ancient, man-made causeways (Su, Bai and Yanggong) provide pleasant walkways across sections of the lake and are great places to begin your romantic strolls. Bai Causeway, accessed from the lake’s northern shore, is perhaps the most interesting as it leads onto Gushan Island with its restaurants, museums and gardens.Cycling is a great way to navigate the area (there are bike rental kiosks everywhere), but boats can also be hired at dozens of places around the lake. West Lake was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011 for having influenced garden design in the rest of China as well as Japan and Korea over the centuries.
