Inside China's "City of Love" Hangzhou Vlog & Travel Guide
When Marco Polo first visited Hangzhou, he called it the finest city in the world. It's the perfect place for those who want it all. With a stunning lake surrounded by green hills and tea plantations on the west and one of China's most innovative tech hubs with a buzzing city center on the east. So COOL! SO COOL! No wonder locals call it "heaven on earth" In this video, we will show you the best things to do in China's most romantic city and thanks to J's insider knowledge step into its history, culture and uncover a few hidden treasures.
And of course share with you the best places to try the local cuisine. So what makes Hangzhou so special? Is it really worth it? and how's the atmosphere like? Come join us and find out as we share a bit of Hangzhou's magic with you. Most people stay around the town center but we picked the Xixi wetlands. Because they offer better access to the natural beauty of the west lake and they're still very well connected to town through a direct metro. Rooms here are also better value and after checking in we head straight to see one of humanity's greatest feat of engineering. We're starting our first half day in Hangzhou going to the old town which is the part of the town that developed around a world UNESCO heritage site which is the Grand Canal.
The Grand Canal is also called Jin Hang Da Yun He It's basically the oldest and the longest man-made water canal in the world. So it was built back in the 500 BC It has been here for 2,400 years and for all this time through different dynasties, it was working connecting the north and the south China transporting good food allowing faster travel put Hangzhou on the map as the economic powerhouse. We just came down the bridge and we realized how many people that are here now. It's very busy because of the national holiday. We are in the ancient streets. One of the ancient walking streets.
Along the river there's three different patches still preserved very well. This is one of it. It's interesting that we stumbled upon the smallest temple in the whole Hanzhou, Zhang Da Xian Temple because the person is called Zhang Da Xian.
He was a doctor and he was seeing patients for free and he was giving them medicine for free. After some local people died, they donated their old house to build a temple for him here. So this is the smallest temple. But local people really they have a lot of respect for this person.
Gongchen bridge is the main landmark but the whole area around it is beautiful and it's full of like little tea houses and shops with the traditional tea this area is very famous for the green tea and we're gonna go and visit the next couple of days not far from Gongchen bridge you'll find one of the coolest district in all of Hangzhou Xiaohe historical district so cool it's so cool yeah it's really cool it's the coolest district we've seen so far in many cities in China you can see already some of the restaurants on the river side there's all these quirky super cool alternative kind of shops and coffee places and bars it's just the vibe is amazing good music it spans across the two sides of the river an important part of the district is Xiaohe Park a former oil factory converted into a really cool display of architecture and green spaces You know when a place is very busy without being overwhelming? That's how Xiaohe felt. There was a certain rhythm to its chaos that made the city feel alive. And despite being a new and cool district, it hasn't lost its tradition. And you can still admire the typical south of the river architecture of the houses along the canal. Here we had our first local meal. A typical hangzhou pork liver noodle.
Oh, this is really good. It tastes like something else. But then the liver flavors come through afterwards. Oh, OK. That's yummy.
It's yummy. We're about to enter the last ancient district. Very long street alongside the canal bank. A lot of artisan shops. Yeah.
A lot of sweet snacks that I'm resisting. Like, look at those almoooonds And there's also a lot of bars, cafes on both sides. They do very nice drinks. Cool atmosphere. You can hear some jazz coming out of them. It's a pretty... pretty
Nice walk as well. Compared to Xiaohe, it's quieter, I would say. Absolutely. Xiaohe is more packed.
There's better shops. I love Xiaohe. Yeah still, I think Xiaohe is our favorite old district. So far, let's see if we can top it off. At the end of the Dadou Lu, you'll find Xianji Temple.
Considered important because it was the first temple sailors saw when entering Hangzhou through the canal. Here's a pro tip: If you're vegetarian, on a budget or just really hungry, nearby Buddhist temples, you will often find all-you-can-eat vegetarian restaurants. Seaweed. Some pancakes.
Sweet potatoes. A lot of tofu, a lot of noodles. It's all you can eat. So you can tell what was the best things by the refills. I really liked the seaweed, the two pancakes, (because I'm a sucker for pancakes.)
And most importantly, my first love from China, Gan Tofu It looks like noodle, but it's tofu I tried them first in Harbin, and it's delicious. It's my favorite kind of tofu, I think, so far, together with mapo tofu. But everything was good. These were just like the very best things that I went for a refill Speaking of temples, the one we're about to visit, it's so beautiful that we got up at 6am to try and avoid the crowds.
Let's see if we managed So even if we made it here at 6.30 opening time, there's a huge queue and people are literally running to get in. I hope we will be able to breathe in there. Wow, I've never seen this. If you're planning a trip to China, try to not be here during national holiday because it's just full of tourists everywhere. Picture this: 1,600 years ago, an Indian Monk Buddhist monk called Hui Lin, comes here, sees this place of outstanding natural beauty and thinks this must be where souls come to rest.
He decided to build a temple here, Lingyin temple, which is one of the most important temples in China, right? Yeah, it's one of the top 10 temples in whole China. And just to know how popular this place is, on the Feilai peak, there are three temples here. Only this one always has visitors' offerings and the smoke from incense always on.
Feilai peak is this beautiful peak that legend has it. It flew all the way from India here overnight by itself. Just to make a point that Buddhism was the right religion, the right spiritual practice. And the whole area is full of grotto, caves.
There are these old trees with very thick vines and just the forest around it is so beautiful. No wonder this was also known as the cloud forest temple because of the incredible incredible setting. Just coming here really really immediately gives you a sense of peace and tranquility.
This is one of the very important caves around here. So this is Ji Gong's bed. I was here when I was six years old.
In the 90s my grandpa took me here and he even put me on the bed. Back then there was no fence. Ji Gong is this character. He is a very rebellious monk and he was featured on many different TV series.
That's why everybody knows him and he's very popular in China. He's this very hippie-ish monk and he always has very dirty and broken clothes. He had this boat-shaped hat and a broken fan always in his hand. And he's super lazy.
He just lay down everywhere. He always drinks wine or eats meat, whatever he can get his hands on. He is the symbol of breaking the rules so Chinese people really like him. All these stone carvings that you see here. Here there are hundreds of grottos with stone carvings everywhere. Some of the greatest examples of Buddhist art that you can find in the world that date back over 600 years old.
Some that we've seen in the caves are even 1100 years old. Perfectly preserved and still in perfect shape like this laughin Buddha up here or some of the Sakyamunis that are around here are truly amazing. And the way they blend in nature with the light coming in from the sun is just so beautiful, so peaceful. I really love this place.
(gentle music) - Taoguang Temple, which is the highest temple here. - Yeah, it's the highest. It's a good hike up I understand why not so many people go to this one. - Back in the days, this temple was Qianlong Emperor's favorite temple.
I think I can safely say it's also my favorite temple. What do you think? - Yeah, same. Same. So far, it's my favorite temple because of the nature around it. - Yeah, the temple is perfectly blended into the trees.
It's such a good view. Usually we don't light up incense in temples, but here we did light up three incense each, and it feels really nice. - It does feel different. There's a different feel to this place, this peak and all the nature surrounding, how peaceful it is. It's also less crowded.
It feels very nice here. I could stay here for way longer. (upbeat music) - We're in Yung Fu Temple.
It is said to be the number one blessed place in the whole Qiantang area. And it has multiple courtyards. Now we're in the courtyard where people copy sutra inside. You have to wash your hands and put everything, belongings outside before going in.
And right now there are people copying sutras as we speak. - The sutras they are copying, they're obviously the teachings of the Buddha. So I guess you pick a sutra or they give you one and you hand write your copy. And in this other hall behind me, there's a deity that people pray to, but there's also beautiful exhibition of Shan Shui painting. Shan Shui means literally mountain waters are those famous Chinese traditional paintings where they use brushstrokes with ink. And we know in these regions we've been to Nanxun before, they make some of the finest calligraphy brushes in the whole of China.
- A little bit up from Yong Fu Temple, you have this other courtyard with two halls. One is a hall with a gorgeous huge statue of Buddha Sakyamuni, made of bronze with what I think are two Arahats And then on this other hall, this one is for the Jade Emperor. So he is the Chinese God that rules heaven. - And then there's a platform gorgeous view of Hangzhou and the West Lake. Totally worth the hike up here. Well, it's 11 now we've been here five hours.
with[out] filming and everything. Would have been three and a half to four hours to visit this place so far. And we still have to do Lingyin Temple, which is the main one. First I think we're gonna stop for some vegetarian noodles. - Yeah, yeah.
They have a really good vegetarian noodle place downstairs. - Very famous. - Yeah. And we're gonna go and check it out. - Let's get some blessed noodles.
It smells amazing. I have to mix them very well so everything is coated otherwise the uncle or auntie that works here is gonna scold me. Mmm. It's very yummy. There's a bit of vinegar which I don't like vinegar but it's very very light It's good. It's very good but not the best noodles I've had to be honest. I don't know why they're famous.
I actually like mine. Because it's ma la. I don't know why I didn't expect it to be spicy. This is Lingyin temple. We just got in and it's
insane. The amount of people it's just unbelievable. The crowds were far outweighted By the beauty of the temple. Some of the highlights were the main hall with this 800 years old statue of the laughing Buddha the very imposing four heavenly kings and this Wei Tuo (Dhammapada) beautiful medicine Buddha Hall and even a hall for our favorite rebellious monk Ji Gong with his life story written all over the walls. There he is drinking wine as usual.. After all this time walking around the temples we were really tired but we couldn't miss the next place: a secret spot that you won't find on any tourist guide. We're taking you
to this bamboo forest. A very very thick bamboo forest. This is just the beginning we're gonna get more inside and show you because apparently it's an incredible incredible sight. How many times I've said incredible today? I don't know. On top of this beautiful thick bamboo forest there are some trees that are hundreds of years old and three trees. Thousands of years old There's one that is over 1400 years old so we're gonna go and look for it.
I guess when we will see it we'll know. Look at this place. It's so magical. Totally recommend coming if you're around Hangzhou. The entrance is one euro something. Absolutely worth it.
There's a lot of hiking paths around. We are so tired from the temple but I feel so energized by all the green and new location and pure air. It's a kilometer or so hike. The problem is the elevation. We're knackered
But we will make it. Also the light is going down fast so we need to chop chop. This mountain is called wu yun shan. It means five-colored cloud mountain because it says there was a five-colored cloud surrounding this peak and they stayed for a long time and five-colored cloud in China Signified like really good luck like everything blessing. So that's a really good sign for this mountain. We Made it! This is the guy 1410 years old! look at that beauty it was split by a lightning in five and it's still growing We could tell we were almost here because like a hundred meters ago The bamboo forest got really really thick It was spectacular and beautiful and you get that kind of things when you know You're about to get to what you're after, it was so beautiful Like yes, something's coming and then we turn the corner and BANG And now we're gonna roll down If There's a rope. Iàd just be like swinging down.
Oh I wish we could paraglide down like we did in Tenerife But yeah, we're gonna roll down find something to drink and go crash Room Service So this morning we literally couldn't feel our legs Because we were so tired from hiking yesterday today. We're gonna take it a little bit easy. We recovered We had our take away Now We're gonna go to the West Lake Yeah West Lake "Xihu" weather is not the best.. It's gonna give it a nice ambience..
Yeah! Autumn, cozy feeling! It's the typical Jiangnan weather rain over a lake and it becomes so foggy and all the mountains behind it blends in So this is exactly what we saw yesterday in the Shan Shui painting Remember? like kind of like foggy feel this is what they try to express and the lake is Massive it's gonna take us 12 kilometers to go around it There's several bridges that cut it into multiple sections There's three islands in the lake and over a hundred viewpoints all around it in Chinese people's mind This lake is one of the top ten places to visit in their lifetime Because not only like it's so poetic in the history. There's so many poets wrote about this place It is also a romantic place There are particularly three love stories that happened around this lake like every Chinese people know the most famous one The story actually happened on the bridge behind us also happened on a rainy day when people come here They're almost like on a pilgrimage to to see the place where this love story happened and it spans multiple lifetimes, too According to legend a white snake spirit who wanted to live among mortals turned itself into a woman called Bai Suzhen When visiting Hangzhou on a rainy day on the West Lake Bai Suzhen met a man called Xu Xian The two quickly fell in love and got married but a monk called Fa Hai Convinced Xu Xian to give his wife a potion after drinking it Bai Suzhen snake form is revealed Xu Xian was so shocked he died on the spot Desperate to bring back her love to life Bai Suzhen traveled to the mountains of heaven to steal a magic herb She revived Xu Xian and reveals to him that many centuries before when she was just a snake a kind human saved her life And that she had waited many lifetimes for that human soul to reincarnate That's all was Xu Xian and their love had transcended multiple lifetimes Unfortunately, the monk Fa Hai managed to cast a spell and trapped by Suzhen under the Lei Fang pagoda, which is where we're headed next The pagoda was built over a thousand a hundred years ago and it actually collapsed a hundred years ago in 1924 and its collapse represented the collapse of the old Chinese way of living the old Chinese society because it also happened during the Transition when China was exiting his feudal economy and society and you know entering a new phase This is one of the oldest restaurants in Hangzhou It has a hundred years old history and it was founded in the 1921 So it was end of the Qing Dynasty a very famous restaurant in this neighborhood because they kept the price Pretty low compared to other like new Hangzhou style restaurants. So popular We have a hundred people in front of us. There
were no tickets left from today But a nice lady had two and she gave us one. She was so sweet She saw us talking to the person at the entrance and she saw we couldn't book and she was like, oh, I have a spare one Get it We ordered many different small dishes like very local stuff and Including some really ancient recipes One of the most famous dishes called Dong Po rou it's a piece of pork belly braised in a sauce for a very long time It's very tender and because it's braised for a long time. It's not greasy at all So I'm really looking forward to it. It is a fishball, right? Yeah, it's so tender She was trying to just pick it up and just cut through Oh my god This is the fluffiest fishball I've ever had. It is SO light. I don't know why
the texture it's kind of like a cotton candy texture You'll see you don't have to bite it You're just it almost melts in your mouth lotus roots They made a kind of lotus root flower and they make a little porridge kind of thing with it. It's very Jellyish Yeah, yeah, cuz it's a little sticky the lotus part. It is This is an ancient recipe Tofu stew. This looks like pastina like tiny pasta. We eat when we're kids. It tastes like pastina Maybe it's the starch. Yeah, everything is clean and like there's no greasy stuff. What is this?
This is a tofu sheet with some fillings inside. So the main star is this Tofu sheet wrap some stuff inside. I think pork. I love stuff stuffed with stuff and wrapped in stuff. So.. It's sweet! Is it pork inside? Like the Jangnan food is tend to be a bit more sweeter. Yeah, it's a bit sweeter. It's good
I expected something different. How's the How's the Xiao Long Bao? Wow, it's fresh. You can tell because it's fresh. You can tell because Normally if it's not fresh the top become really hard and hard to chew. This is all soft Very porky. You really need the
vinegar because it's too porky Mmm Mmm Whoa It is it is very porky That it's very meaty, but not in a bad way Amazing. Look how tender it is. It does cut through it cuts with the chopsticks It's really not greasy tiny sweetness the sauce It's a little sweet soy sauce Wow, really not greasy at all. Amazing texture. You'll like it too One more meal This is amazing It's true. It's a little bit sweet. Oh, but oh Oh my god Amazing amazing. I'm absolutely shocked. So the total bill
for both of us All that feast the delicious stuff was how much? Less than 20 euros twenty dollars, but that's the good thing about this place It's a state-owned restaurant, they kept the price extremely low for the same stuff in any other restaurant around here It would be triple the price. Wow, that's insane (music) There are two grand jewels of Westlake the first one of course is the Longjing tea It's a special green tea that only grows here on this particular mountain around West lake And there is an ancient tea village that we're gonna visit today The second one is a spring here in the Hu Pao Mountain Hu Paomeans "tiger run" So in this particular park that has this ancient spring the water quality is so good Very good for making the green tea and the Hu Pao name the running tiger Comes from the story of this spring the legend of the spring So a monk, a real monk, lived here 800 years ago But he was about to leave the mountain because there was no water, he didn't know what to do He had a dream one night and God told him don't worry I'm gonna bring spring water to that mountain and I'm gonna use two tigers to bring it to you And the next day the monk woke up And saw two tigers digging from where they were digging spring water started coming up and it's very good water It's not just the best water for making tea, but it's also very good drinkable water high quality water People still come here sometimes like taking the water from the spring in the tea house around Hangzhou Sometimes they advertise, you know, longjin tea made with Hu Pao water.. apparently the best Tea is the Longjin tea the green tea and the best water for making green tea is the Hu Paol water So I can't wait to go visit Longjin village and try some proper proper green tea But first we're going to explore this beautiful beautiful mountain area and it's SO GREEN You probably can see it's so green There's trees everywhere and there are these ponds and lakes little lakes with trees coming out of it It's very very beautiful and you keep hearing the sound of the spring and little waterfalls. So it's very relaxing
[Music] There's also a temple dedicated to Avalokitesvara Guanyin She's the most famous goddess because of her infinite mercy like everybody worships her She forgives everybody no matter what the statue is a two meters porcelain statue made in Jingdezhen Jingdezhen is where the finest Chinese porcelain is and it's one of the main stops on our journey So keep an eye for Jingdezhen video coming soon The tea plantation is two kilometers walk from the tiger spring and on the way, we just casually stumbled upon this the Shiwu cave This is a cave full of stone carving similar to the one we've seen in the temple the other day In the cave Someone made the apple as an offer to the cave And these structures really cool using the flashlight. It's really dark It's so shiny These are offers to the Arahant and some people offer cigarettes which if you're Arahant you certainly don't smoke But I guess it's a way to give up something you like? As we get out of the cave There's this character carved here: Yuan it roughly translates to fate or destiny It's a very important term in the Chinese culture You can see it as an invisible string in between people So whoever has this invisible string you would eventually meet at certain time or location Also, you would have this relationship with a certain location. For example, we have an invisible string with this cave So we eventually came to the cave It feels great when you come out of it and see this means it's my fate to be here Sometimes when you meet a random person and you feel really good about that person you say like we have Yuan And when you say goodbye to that person you say if we have Yuan we will meet again Walking up this very popular street with a lot of cute shops and street food vendors on the way to the Longjing tea plantations You can make a little detour and see a very special house. Look at how people are All queuing up to look at it. Why is it special? Because it looks exactly like the house in spirited way This is actually a private house. Yeah, it's
someone's house every day people queue up to take photos of it There's a lady here She has a very good view on the spirited away house she also owns a tea plantation So she's like set up her little stand there She was like you have to buy something in order to take pictures because she has the best viewpoint She is asking 30 kuai about five euros for a small pot of tea We're gonna go around the tea village and see if it's a good price or not The sellers here sell a lot of osmanthus flowers powder extract or the flower dry flower itself to make tea And honey in chinese herbal medicine. It is also widely used and consumed It actually has a lot of antioxidants and it's also used by some cultures as a repellent from for insects So it's a very very good flower and here they've been using it for centuries Maybe more.. they even make a wine that they drink around Mid Autumn festival, which is the reunion wine to celebrate the reunion with your family We found a very nice tea house here on the way to the tea terraces And we got our very special green tea with Hu Pao mountain spring water and the mayflower dessert Perfect location because we're under a mayflower. I'm nowhere near a tea expert, but I drink green tea because it's healthy That's that's where my tea knowledge stops at what I can see here is that it's very clear Um, i'm gonna see if it tastes any different than other green tea I had Oh that tastes different... it exactly tastes like Longjin because I had it before I know how it tastes like this is real green tea.
The tea bag you had in europe is not green tea man! Okay Then that's probably why it tastes different osmanthus flower some sugar crystal water chestnut with the lotus root Jelly thing So hot it does have a fragrance It tastes a little bit like perfume But it's not heavy because there's only a few flowers Walking up to Longjin tea you can take the same path that the emperor Qianlong used to take. He also loved tea and he would come to longjin to savor The green tea and it's full of tea terraces you can already smell the tea here and we're not up there yet This is an ancient well from the southern song dynasty. So almost a thousand years old and it's said that an alchemist Ge Feng used to make the immortality pills using the water From this well and nowadays, of course is used for making very good tea You got some That's how you do it They drink it like this mainly for making tea but you can drink it directly So You can see all the tea terraces and the plantations and all the foggy forests behind it Incredibly scenic beautiful view. I hope the video can capture this and give you an idea of how beautiful this is Now we're just gonna go and explore around here a little bit On our next episode we'll take you to Shaoxing, a one-of-a-kind water town with a 2500 years old history of making the best wine in China, and where we learned an important lesson: It's never too late in life. Here, a man wrote the greatest masterpiece of China's calligraphy well into his 50s and became a legend. Subscribe because even if it's not a famous destination, this small town has many stories to tell and we can't wait to share them with you.
2025-03-20 00:00
