West Lake · 西湖 · Free, and Open All Night

💡These five sit in three different directions — do not try to do them in one day：Hangzhou's sights are often listed as if they were all "around West Lake", which produces badly broken itineraries. In practice they fall into three groups. On the lake itself: the shoreline loop and Leifeng Pagoda, which sits on the southern shore and is reachable on foot or by shared bike from Su Causeway — these two genuinely combine into one day. In the western hills: Lingyin Temple and the Longjing tea villages, roughly 6–10 km west and southwest of the lake with no direct metro; they share the same direction and can be paired in one day if you start early. West of the city: Xixi Wetland, about 5 km away in a different direction again, which wants a half day of its own. A realistic Hangzhou plan is therefore two full days minimum for the lake plus one hill day, with Xixi added only if you have a third.

💡In Hangzhou the season decides what you actually see, not just how it feels：Most cities have a comfortable season and an uncomfortable one. Hangzhou is different: the season changes what physically exists. Late March to April is the Longjing picking season — the only window in which you can watch tea being picked and pan-fired and drink that year's first flush. Summer brings lotus on the lake and heat with it, plus mosquitoes in the Xixi reeds. Autumn through early winter is when the reed flats at Xixi turn white, the classic scene there, and is also the most comfortable walking weather along with spring. Winter snow on Broken Bridge is the most famous image of the lake and also the least reliable — it needs snow that Hangzhou does not get every year. So pick your dates around the one thing you most want to see, and treat the rest as a bonus.

💡A shared bike is the right answer here, not a taxi：The loop is roughly 15 km and almost entirely flat, which puts it about 1.5–2 hours by bike against a full day on foot. More importantly, several lakeside stretches are closed to cars at weekends and on holidays, so a bike is not merely cheaper — it is the mode that can actually follow the shoreline continuously. Unlock via Alipay (Hellobike and Meituan both operate here). If you only have a couple of hours, ride the eastern shore to Su Causeway and back rather than attempting the full circuit.

💡Before 9 AM and after 5 PM are different lakes from midday：Su Causeway and Broken Bridge are the two places every tour group goes, and they fill up from roughly 10 AM onwards. The window from 7 to 9 AM is quiet, often carries morning mist off the water, and gives the softest light of the day; dusk does the same from the other direction and adds the city lights. This is not a minor optimisation — at the lake it is the difference between the photograph you imagined and a crowd of shoulders.

💡Ten minutes inland changes the price and usually the cooking：Restaurants with a lake view carry a lake-view price, and the gap is large enough to be worth walking for. Check the menu before you sit down. Walking about ten minutes into the city — Wulin Road, the Hefang Street area — generally buys both better value and better food. This is not a warning about scams; it is simply where locals eat.