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Hangzhou Was the China I Had Come to See
Shangcheng District

Hangzhou Was the China I Had Come to See

Aug 9, 2026 26 min read

I arrived knowing almost nothing about Hangzhou. Between water lilies, pagodas, Buddhist temples and old streets, I found the China I had imagined — and discovered that reality was even more captivating than I had expected. I arrived in Hangzhou from Shanghai on the afternoon of 15 May, after less than an hour on the high-speed train from Shangha