What cultural etiquette should I know for Hangzhou?

The single most Hangzhou-specific custom you'll encounter is tea. Longjing Village sits about 5 km southwest of West Lake, in the hills where China's most prized green tea grows. When someone pours you a cup, tap two fingers on the table twice. That gesture, called kou zhi li, traces to a Qing Dynasty legend and remains the standard thank-you across Zhejiang province. You'll catch the toasty, chestnut-like aroma of fresh Longjing before the cup reaches you. Don't wave it away. Refusing tea at a home visit or at a teahouse near Meijiawu village is a real social slight, roughly equivalent to declining a handshake. The China National Tea Museum, founded in 1991 on the south side of the lake, will walk you through a proper tasting if you sit down and look willing. Locals steep their leaves at about 80°C, never a full boil, and refill the same glass 3 or 4 times through an afternoon.

Lingyin Temple, about 6 km west of West Lake, is the largest Buddhist site in the Hangzhou area and the strictest about visitor conduct. Remove your shoes before entering its meditation halls. The incense smoke hangs thick and sweet near Mahavira Hall, heaviest on the 1st and 15th of the lunar month when worshippers arrive before 7am. Step over thresholds, never on them. You'll find the same rule at Jingci Temple near Leifeng Pagoda on the south shore. The Feilai Feng grottoes beside Lingyin hold around 470 stone Buddhist carvings, some from the 10th century, and visitors treat them as devotional objects, not selfie backgrounds. Photographs of monks need their explicit permission. Mind you, staff won't always enforce this, but other visitors will notice and correct you.

Chopstick rules carry real weight in Hangzhou. Never plant them upright in your rice bowl. That mimics funeral incense at a grave. Don't point them at anyone. Don't tap them on the rim of your dish, a gesture that echoes old Hangzhou street begging. At restaurants along Hefang Street or Grandma's Kitchen on Hubin Road, the host orders for the table and pays the bill. Fighting over the check is expected. Almost theatrical. Let the host win. Dishes arrive on a communal lazy Susan, still steaming, and the polite move is to serve others first using the shared pair, not your personal chopsticks. Longjing shrimp and Dongpo pork at Louwailou, operating on the north shore of West Lake since 1848, are the two signature dishes likely to appear at any formal Hangzhou dinner. They pair well with warm Shaoxing rice wine, served in small ceramic cups at around 50°C.

Ni hao works for most interactions, though Hangzhou locals sometimes default to Hangzhouhua, a Wu dialect that sounds nothing like the Mandarin you'd learn from a phrasebook. A short nod and a slight smile is the standard greeting between strangers. In business settings, handshakes happen but tend to be initiated by the Chinese side. Offer your card with both hands, text facing the recipient, a rule that still matters at the tech companies clustered in Binjiang district across the Qiantang River. Queueing improved after Hangzhou hosted the G20 Summit in September 2016, but the Line 1 platform at Longxiang Bridge station during the 8am rush still presses you shoulder-to-shoulder with other commuters. WeChat Pay and Alipay dominate here. Cash is increasingly refused at smaller shops along Wulin Road. Some convenience stores in Xihu District will wave you off entirely if you hand them a 100-yuan note.