Hangzhou, a lake that made poets

Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song and the city Marco Polo called the finest in the world, and its centre of gravity has never moved: West Lake, a sheet of water framed by willow causeways, arched bridges and tea hills. Walk or cycle the Su Causeway, built by the poet-governor Su Dongpo in 1090, and the shorter Bai Causeway to the Broken Bridge, which legend says is where Lady White Snake met her scholar in the rain. Row out at dusk to the Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, three stone lanterns in the water whose candle-lit apertures appear on the one-yuan note, with Leifeng Pagoda glowing on the far shore.

Behind the lake the hills fill with tea. In Meijiawu and Longjing village, terraces of xihu longjing climb the slopes and families roast the flat green leaves by hand in hot woks; the pre-Qingming harvest in late March is the prized one, and the National Tea Museum explains the rest. Deeper into the valley, Lingyin Temple has been burning incense since 328 CE, its approach lined by the Feilai Feng cliffs, where more than three hundred Song and Yuan Buddhas are carved into the limestone.

Eat by the water: Dongpo pork braised until it collapses, West Lake vinegar fish, shrimp fried with longjing leaves, and steamed buns down Hefang Street in the old quarter. Summer covers the lake in lotus; October fills the whole city with the scent of osmanthus. Add the southern end of the Grand Canal and the boardwalks of Xixi Wetland, and Hangzhou earns several days on any route through China.