My parents just came back from a long trip to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou and the watertowns within that triangle. I am editing their many hours of videos right now to put on DVDs, so here's some "2nd hand" information I'd like to share...

[I know EdEdwards have been planning to relax in Hangzhou for a few days in their trip, so I hope he will read this.]

Hangzhou - The city itself is relatively charmless, with lots of highrises. The West Lake still looks pretty good, but crowd is a HUGE problem at many of the main tourist sites along the northern shores, as well as in the mountains to the west. If you want to relax, avoid those areas. The worst is at Lingyan Temple. Crowd and noise is terrible, but they do have one of the largest indoor buddha statue in China, and the temple is one of the most important ones.

In contrast, the areas along the south and southwest shores of West Lake is still pretty tranquil. Famous parks like "Listening to Orioles Singing in the Willows", "Viewing Fish at Flower Harbor" and a relatively new private garden Guozhuang are pretty crowd-free.

Another odd thing about Hangzhou is that temples charge admission fees (often about 30yuans - pretty hefty, when you consider the average wage of Chinese citizens); while many public gardens and museums don't. Very strange.

Watertowns - These watertowns are applying for UNESCO World Heritage Site status, but some of them are becoming very touristy. My parents visited the following 6: Xitang, Wuchen, Tongli, Mudu, Zhouzhuang & Luzhi. In their opinion, Zhouzhuang is the most commercialized and not worth visiting. The most authentic are Xitang and Wuchen; and Tongli (between Hangzhou and Suzhou) is worth visiting mainly of the Tuisi Garden. [You can do a daytrip with a hire car to both Xitang and Wuchen from either Shanghai or Hangzhou, as they are about halfway between those two metropolitans.]

As for Suzhou itself, I have yet to work on the tapes. I may comment on that later on.

Thank you for the information. It sounds like one full day in Hangzhou will be enough, but do you know if the crowds are a bother for trips to the tea plantations and museum? Also, any idea how much a taxi trip would take from Hangzhou or Shaoxing to Suzhou? We are planning (per Peter's advice) 3 nights in Shaoxing after one day in Hangzhou, then moving on to Suzhou for 2 nights. Would like to be able to take taxi, so we could stop at Tongli or another watertown in between.

The areas around the famous Longjing (Dragon Well) is relatively crowd-free, and there are some tea plantations and tea houses/stores there. Not sure if they have any actual tours though.

The Zhejiang Museum shouldn't be too crowded. There's also an ancient library nearby (Wenlange) where an emperor commisioned a copy of the "Complete Four Library" to be stored there. Also nearby is the Xiling Engraver's Society. All relatively quiet and interesting.

If you're already going to Shaoxing for 3 nights, then you probably don't need to go to one of those watertowns I mentioned, as Shaoxing itself is one. You probably should just take the train from Shaoxing to Suzhou, and then use the day in Suzhou to visit the gardens inside the city or by the Taihu lake.

I don't know the details about hire-car cost, but you should ask people in the hotel. You don't want to take a regular taxi, as that will be too expensive to go long distance.

As already remarked elsewhere, the trains on the line to Shaoxing are slow, and from Shaoxing to Suzhou would involve changing at Hangzhou. The speedy way is to do this by bus, from the new long distance bus station at the northeast corner of Shaoxing. Your hotel can call and check schedules. Most buses are large, comfortable, with aircon and an attendant.

The worst and most expensive way to find a car is via your hotel. Look at the distance, look at the km rate for taxis, flag down a few the day before you want to travel and bargain a price. Some won't want to go to another town, however, for fear of being 'fined' by local police. It all depends on the politics. But the hotel car will be a lot more expensive if you have to fall back on that.

Peter N-H
http://members.shaw.ca/pnhpublic/China.html

Thanks for the advice. Was planning initially to take a bus from Shaoxing to Suzhou. If we do bargain for a taxi between 2 towns or cities, based on the km rate and an estimate of the total trip, should we expect to wind up paying approximately the full km rate one-way, or extra because the driver has to drive himself back to his point of origin with an empty cab?

Ah yeah... Train between Shaoxing and Suzhou is a bad idea. Don't know what I was thinking.

Tongli is well on its way to becoming another Zhouzhuang. Westerners are still something of a rarity but it is clearly becoming a popular place for Chinese day trippers. The first 300 yards after you enter is a commmercialized mess but things get better as you proceed farther into the village. I had a good time there and still recommend it if you are in the Suzhou area but suggest that folks in search of a "water village" experience might be better advised to go to a place like Xitang.

We are currently planning to spend a full day in Hangzhou and overnight two nights. We were thinking about possibly visiting Shaoxing as a day trip and then catching Xitang on our way to Shanghai.

We have approximately 4 1/2 days to spend in the Shanghai region. Should we fly into Hangzhou and head for Shaoxing? Should we just skip Hangzhou?

How would you divide up the 4 1/2 days? Is one day sufficient for Shaoxing?

Thanks for your help!

Hi
one thing about the crowds in Hangzhou - it is much much worse on the weekends. So would recommend any overnighters stick to weekdays.
But I really liked the place. Thought there were many places where you could just get away from the crowds, delicious food (fatty pork yum!) and a nice atmosphere.

How many days in each place would you allot? We will try to avoid weekends!