My two favorite things about Hangzhou are the mountains that surround downtown and how easy they are to reach. From Shanghai it takes less than an hour to Hangzhou station and then a short bus ride will get you into some world class hiking. Another nice thing is that even though it can seem like everybody in China is at the West Lake in matching hats, the mountain trails are quite quiet and peaceful.
Some photos from a trip late last year to Dongbaishan in Zhejiang province. Probably one of the stranger mountains I’ve climbed due to the massive wind farm on the peak. After staying on the mountain for a night, we then came down towards Yiwu and stopped in the Small Commodities Market(the largest wholesale market in the world!). Basically anything that can be made in China at some point passes through Yiwu on it’s way to the rest of the world.