Around the show
West Lake and the Romance of the Song Dynasty: one Hangzhou day
The show and Hangzhou's famous lake tell the same Southern Song story. Here's how to pair them, and what else the city offers.
See Romance of the Song Dynasty tickets on GetYourGuide ↗The lake and the show, one story
The natural companion to the show is West Lake itself, the scenic heart of Hangzhou and a UNESCO World Heritage site that has inspired Chinese poets and painters for a thousand years. The two belong together: the lake's causeways, islands and the Leifeng Pagoda on its shore are the real settings of the legends the Romance of the Song Dynasty dramatises, so seeing the lake by day and the show afterwards gives each a resonance the other sharpens.
A day around West Lake
West Lake rewards a slow half-day: the Su and Bai causeways that stripe the water, a boat out to the islands, the Leifeng Pagoda with its White Snake associations, and the tea-house culture the city is known for. It's walkable and cyclable, and a relaxed morning or afternoon at the lake sets up an afternoon-into-evening at Songcheng and the show perfectly, keeping the whole day on the western side of Hangzhou.
Tea country and temples
Just beyond the lake, the hills hide the Longjing (Dragon Well) tea villages, where Hangzhou's famous green tea is grown, and the great Buddhist temple of Lingyin with its carved grottoes. These make easy add-ons for a longer Hangzhou stay, rounding out a trip that mixes the lake, the tea hills, the temples and the show into a picture of the refined, cultured city the Song left behind.
Fitting Hangzhou into a bigger trip
Hangzhou is an easy high-speed-train hop from Shanghai, so many visitors see it on a day or overnight trip from there, or as part of a wider eastern-China route taking in the classical gardens of Suzhou and the canal town of Wuzhen. The show and Songcheng slot naturally into such a plan as the cultural-spectacle half of a Hangzhou stop, alongside a day at the lake.
Booking the pieces
Each part of a Hangzhou visit — the show and Songcheng, a West Lake cruise or tour, a Longjing tea-village trip — is bookable as its own GetYourGuide experience, with live prices and free cancellation shown before you pay. Booking the fixed-time show first, then arranging the flexible lake and tea time around it, is the simplest way to make a smooth day of it.
More things to do nearby
Still choosing a day?
Leave your email and roughly when you're in Hangzhou, and I'll send a short rundown — what the show and the Songcheng park involve, and how to fit them around West Lake.