Recommend August 2016 - 29
onsitereview
HangzHou:
China's Rising Star
Melissa Bryant
The word on everyone's lips and travel
bucket lists this year is Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Province's capital city where jaw-dropping
natural scenery and well-preserved cultural
sites are inspiring North American travelers
to explore outside of Beijing and Shanghai
and into this timeless Chinese retreat.
Long revered by artists and poets for its
idyllic West Lake, Hangzhou's present-day
vacation appeal goes back to 2006, when the
city was awarded the designation of "Oriental
Capital of Leisure" by the international NGO
World Leisure Organization.
For convenient one-stop shopping for
you, and seamless travel for clients, book the
destination through veteran tour operator
Goway Travel as an extension-the 14-day
China Odyssey with Hangzhou Extension
itinerary ($3,399 pp including air from Los
Angeles on Cathay Pacific or Korean Air)
samples Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the
Forbidden City and The Great Wall-or,
as a standalone tour-the 4-day Hangzhou
West Lake itinerary ($479 pp land only) visits
Lingyin Temple, Hangzhou's oldest Buddhist
temple; Flying Peak, a craggy limestone
formation with hundreds of stone carvings;
and the Meijiawu Tea Plantation, renowned
for its Longjing green tea.
Tip: Confer with Goway at least three
months prior to your client's departure on
how they can properly secure a Chinese
Tourist Visa through the Chinese Embassy or
the company's third-party partner CIBTvisas.
Keep in mind that Goway clients receive
discounts off CIBTvisas' service fees.
Which Way to Paradise
Accessible by plane or 50-minute highspeed train from Shanghai, scenic Hangzhou
spans 6,407 sq. miles (the city proper covers
approximately 1,882 sq. miles) in a prized
locality hugging China's southeastern coast.
If your clients opt for the Hangzhou West Lake
itinerary, know that Hangzhou's Xiaoshan
International Airport (HGH) serves flights on
166 air routes and recently picked up a thriceweekly nonstop service from San Francisco
via United Airlines.
The sheer beauty of Hangzhou with its
scenic causeways, tree-lined avenues and
plentiful gardens has drawn domestic tourists
to the waterside city for years. In recent
years, Hangzhou has garnered international
recognition and significant wealth through
its budding tech industry (Hangzhou is home
to Chinese Internet giant Alibaba), which
has translated into the city's increasingly
sophisticated accommodations options. I
stayed in the five-star Sofitel Hangzhou
Westlake (starting at $112 per night)
situated along the banks of West Lake
near the Xihu Tiandi shopping and leisure
complex. The hotel's rooftop Sky Garden
overlooking the misty mountains flanking
West Lake offered equally as impressive
views as that from below. Inside, guests will
find 233 elegantly furnished guestrooms, two
restaurants, two bars, an indoor pool and a
Balinese-inspired spa.
Hungry in Hangzhou
My group delved into Hangzhou, chopsticks
first, with a visit to a 90-year-old restaurant
for lunch. Our local guide Aaron, a young
university grad with an encyclopedic lexicon,
ordered a buffet of regional dishes, while we
chowed down on delicious dumplings and
fish balls in excited anticipation for what
was to come next. The highlight of our
meal, Hangzhou's famous beggar's chicken,
made a grand entrance in a hardened lotus
leaf cocoon and was revealed to us once our
waiter cracked open its shell with a mallet.
After lunch, we opted for an evening stroll
along West Lake, feasting our eyes on the
renowned UNESCO World Heritage Site
bordered by a dramatic dark blue sky.
Goway's China Odyssey with Hangzhou
Extension itinerary includes most meals,
while the Hangzhou West Lake itinerary
only includes breakfast and lunch. Clients
can ask their local guide for dinner
suggestions in the city, which will most likely
include the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou
at West Lake's posh Jin Sha restaurant
specializing in fine Shanghainese, Cantonese
and traditional cuisine.
Entertainment From A to "Tea"
A trip to Hangzhou wouldn't be complete
without experiencing the city's muchcelebrated tea culture. At the Meijiawu
Tea Plantation nestled in the verdant hills
surrounding West Lake, I sipped a warm cup
of Longjing Tea in a private back room while
a tea guru explained, and demonstrated, the
miraculous qualities of this antioxidant-rich
beverage employed by Buddhist monks before
meditation. Pouring an iodine tincture into
a cup of water and rice grains (a metaphor
for our stomach and the foods we ingest),
we watched as the murky glass almost
instantaneously decolorized with the addition
of fresh brewed green tea.
The theme of tea carried over onto Hefang
Street, a lively pedestrian street dotted with
silk, bonsai and Chinese craft shops. Here,
we veered off the stone-paved path into
the Zhu Bingren Bronze Art Museum, an
opulent building adorned with decorative
doors, windows, roof, pillars and furniture
made of bronze. Hefang Street also houses
the Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum.
After tracing the history of this ancient
practice through the museums' five sections,
we headed over to the shop and watched as
workers feverishly packed prescriptions for
patients, pulling various herbal ingredients
from stacks of drawers at breakneck speed.
Traveling by private, air-conditioned
van, which provided some respite from the
humidity and sporadic rain showers, our
last stop of the day was well off the beaten
path at the Songcheng amusement park.
Although we were there for "The Romance
of the Song Dynasty" show, a large-scale
theatrical performance depicting Hangzhou's
history and legends through song, dance and
acrobatics, I couldn't resist participating in
the park's "Wipeout"-esque water obstacle
course beforehand, where I leapt across
floating lily pads in front of a crowd of
curious onlookers. ■
Contact Information
Goway Travel: goway.com
august 2016 29
http://www.goway.com
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