#qinghefang
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