Getting Around Hangzhou (2026)

Mostly yes, but not on the two stretches you have probably seen photographed. The Su Causeway (苏堤) and the Bai Causeway (白堤) permanently ban all non-motorised vehicles — bicycles, skateboards, rollerblades, balance boards — every day of the year, a rule in force since 2018 and reported at the time as backed by 95% of surveyed visitors. Those are the causeways that cut across the lake, so a great many English cycling routes still published online are simply illegal to ride. The official way around is to go outside the water: from the north end of the Su Causeway take Beishan Street, Yanggong Causeway and Nanshan Road to the south end, about 4.3 km and roughly 22 minutes on a bike. You can walk the causeways freely — the classic lakeside walking loop is about 13.5 km.

Through Alipay, and the city has made this explicitly available to overseas visitors with no deposit. Either scan a bike's QR code inside Alipay, or open the Dingdang Chuxing (叮嗒出行) mini-programme in Alipay, choose the Alipay quick-login option, and pick the zero-cost activation. The bikes are the red ones (小红车), running since 2008 with over 5,500 docking points and 140,000-plus bikes as of 2024, and you can return one to any dock. Pricing is the reason it matters: the first hour is free, then ¥1 per hour, capped at ¥5 for a day, with unlimited re-rentals — so a lake circuit in short hops costs nothing at all. Dockless operators (Hellobike, Meituan) work the same way through Alipay if a dock is inconvenient.

It is genuine public transport on the canals at a flat ¥3, not a sightseeing cruise — and the fare reportedly has not risen in nineteen years. There are four lines; the one visitors want is Line 1, which runs the Grand Canal from Wulinmen (武林门) in the city centre up to Gongchen Bridge (拱宸桥), which is precisely where the Qiaoxi craft-museum quarter is. So the cheapest way to reach those museums is a boat ride along a UNESCO World Heritage waterway. Boats run roughly every 30 minutes, first around 07:00 and last around 18:00. There is no advance booking — pay on board with Alipay or a transit card — but departures run strictly to the timetable, so get to the pier about 20 minutes early rather than turning up on the hour.

Two of them, for different jobs. Line 1 is the one every guide names: it links Hangzhou East railway station, the downtown, the West Lake lakefront at Longxiangqiao (龙翔桥) and the old town at Ding'anlu (定安路). Line 3 is the one nobody mentions and the one that reaches the western sights — it serves Xixi Wetland South (西溪湿地南) directly, and it is how you get to Lingyin Temple, via Huanglong Sports Centre (黄龙体育中心) and the Lingyin Express (灵隐专线) bus. Line 19 is the airport express. Full network, fares and payment mechanics are in our Hangzhou metro guide; what matters strategically is that the tea hills have no metro at all.

As a structure rather than an exact quote, because meters get revised: expect roughly ¥13 for the first 3 km, about ¥2.50 per km up to 10 km, and beyond 10 km a 50% empty-return surcharge that takes the rate to roughly ¥3.75 per km — which is why a run out to Liangzhu or the airport costs more per kilometre than a hop across town. Mileage is billed about 30% higher between 23:00 and 05:00, and crawling in traffic is charged by time. A ride-hail app is usually easier than a street taxi for a foreign visitor, because the destination is set in the app rather than explained out loud, and payment is already attached. Where a street taxi wins is at a rank when you have no data.

The Chinese name and, ideally, the street address — English names and pinyin are often not recognised, and several Hangzhou sights have similar-sounding names. Screenshot the destination in Chinese before you set off, because you may have no signal at a temple gate or in the tea hills. The table on this page gives the Chinese names and addresses for the places visitors most often need, including the ones our other guides verified on the ground: Longjing Village (龙井村), the China National Tea Museum's Shuangfeng branch (中国茶叶博物馆双峰馆区, 龙井路88号), the Silk Museum (中国丝绸博物馆, 玉皇山路73-1号) and the Qiaoxi craft museums (小河路334号).

They split by mode, and the fastest is not always the train. Wuzhen is best reached by direct coach — about 1.5 hours from Hangzhou's north bus station, and the coach avoids a transfer with luggage that the train forces on you. Nanxun now has its own high-speed station (Huzhou Nanxun, opened December 2024), but its railway points at Shanghai rather than Hangzhou, so from Hangzhou it usually means a change. Hengdian World Studios is 2–3 hours away and is not a West-Lake-style day trip. Putuoshan needs a bus or train to Zhoushan and then a ferry. Each has its own guide with the legs verified.