Hangzhou for families

Best free attractions

Hangzhou's free landscape splits neatly between the civic and the horticultural. Downtown squares built into the commercial heart of the city double as gathering rooms after dark; botanical gardens, springs, and old lakeside viewpoints anchored around West Lake carry the horticultural half. This list is for the visitor who has already paid the West Lake toll of a dozen tour boats and wants a day that costs nothing, mixes concrete with camellias, and puts you next to the people who actually live here. Skip the packaged evening cruises and the ticketed pagodas — the seven places below cost nothing to enter, are open to anyone with the time to walk to them, and range from a downtown plaza the city treats as its living room to a lakeside park kept public where a traditional viewpoint once stood. Wear shoes you can walk in. Bring water. Skip the queue at the ticket booth by choosing venues that do not have one.