To immerse yourself into China's age-old tea tradition, visit the Longjing Tea Fields (or any of the other tea fields further to the west). Longjing is an exquisite variety of tea native to the region, and visitors will get a chance to sample the noble drink during a tea ceremony.

The Willowbank experience includes unique native wildlife, farm animals and the country's natural history. Dining is available in the award-winning restaurant, acclaimed for its architecture and construction, which allows magnificent views of the surrounding wildlife and gardens.

About 80 km from Hangzhou city and just an easy hour bus ride away, Wu Zhen is a town where time passes without notice. More and more tourists have discovered the time-worn cobbled stone streets, crow-stepped gable, wooden doors and long, narrow alleys of Wu Zhen. Still, the life of the locals seem undisturbed. They still keep to their traditional customs, like drinking Sanbai Wine, making traditional maltose and sipping morning tea until 9.30 am, the same leisurely and pleasing way their great grandfathers did. With the newly created Wu Zhen International Theater Festival, the town shows also a touch of modern culture.

The Song Dynasty Town (or Songcheng) is an exciting, albeit slightly kitschy, theme park in Hangzhou. This is one of China’s largest dynastic theme parks, replicating the architecture and street scenes of that era.The park's main attraction, however, aren't its countless exotic exhibits, but a top-notch song and dance show that ranks amongst the finest in the world.