Destinations / The East
Hangzhou杭州
West Lake, tea mountains, and the quiet heart of Chinese wellness — the city Marco Polo called beyond compare.
The city, plainly
Hangzhou has been China's retreat for a thousand years: poets, emperors, and tea farmers all came here to slow down. The city wraps around West Lake's willow banks, and an hour into the surrounding hills puts you among terraced Longjing tea fields and working temples. It is the natural home of our wellness journeys — tea, TCM, temple food, and walking.
What we never skip
Longjing at the source
Pick, fire, and drink tea with a farming family on the terraces where it is grown.
Lake at dawn
Walking West Lake's causeways at 6 a.m. — mist, lotus, and locals swimming year-round.
Temple mornings
Qigong with monks at a working monastery, followed by a vegetarian temple lunch.
Experiences in Hangzhou
Tai Chi & Baduanjin at Dawn太极 · 八段锦
Join the park regulars — not a tourist class — as a master takes you through the opening forms, then tea and sesame biscuits after.
1.5 hours, morning
Hanfu Portraiture汉服
Dress in historical Chinese dress with a stylist, then shoot among the architecture it belongs to — city wall, garden, temple.
Half day
A Day on the Tea Terraces龙井茶山
Pick alongside farmers, fire the leaves in a wok, and drink the day's work looking back over the valley.
Full day
Medicinal Cuisine Table (Yaoshan)药膳
A restaurant where the menu is prescribed like a gentle tonic — herbs, soups, and seasons matched to how you actually feel.
A long lunch
TCM Consultation & Tuina中医问诊 · 推拿
A full traditional diagnosis with a licensed practitioner — pulse, tongue, questions — followed by tailored tuina bodywork.
2 hours
Qigong with Monks气功
Standing practice in a working monastery's courtyard, then a silent vegetarian temple lunch.
Morning
Mountain Hot-Spring Day温泉
Private pools in bamboo mountains, herbal soaks, and a slow dinner after — jet lag does not survive this.
Full day
Themes here: Wellness & Healing · Food & Tea · Cultural Immersion
Journeys through Hangzhou
Healing Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Five days of deliberate restoration in China's retreat city: a licensed TCM consultation, qigong with monks, a full day on the tea terraces, and West Lake at dawn.
Monthly, April–October
from US$1,650
The Wellness Route
Beijing · Chengdu · Hangzhou
Our signature long journey for the restorative traveler: TCM in Beijing, Sichuan's slow arts in Chengdu, tea and temple practice in Hangzhou — with all the great sights between.
Monthly, April–October
from US$3,480