West Lake, Anji Bamboo, Tianducheng (Mini Paris), Longjing tea villages.
Paris-themed housing estate in Linping District, Hangzhou. Opened 2007 with a 108 m Eiffel replica and Baroque fountains. Originally planned for 100,000+ residents; ~30,000 by 2017.
Mini Paris with Eiffel, in Hangzhou suburb. ON YOUR ROUTE — easy add from Hangzhou.
Hangzhou campus designed by Pritzker laureate Wang Shu and Amateur Architecture Studio. Recycled tiles and bricks; landscape-integrated layout around Xiangshan ('Elephant Mountain'). Phase I 2004; Phase II 2007.
Wang Shu's masterpiece. Pritzker-winning; rammed earth & recycled-tile concrete, partly ruinous by design. THE building of contemporary China.
Wang Shu's residential village — rough concrete, abstract, half-empty. Easy from Hangzhou.
Bamboo expo garden and research facility in Anji County, Zhejiang. Recognised by scholars as containing one of the widest varieties of bamboo species in the world; combines research, education, and tourism.
Day trip from Hangzhou, easy add.
Group of 24 artificial sandstone caverns at Fenghuang Hill near Longyou, Quzhou, Zhejiang. Believed to be 2,000+ years old; rediscovered 1992. Original purpose and construction method remain unknown.
Mysterious 2000-year-old man-made caverns. Genuinely unique.
Museum in Yinzhou District, Ningbo, designed by Wang Shu (2012 Pritzker). Façades use large quantities of recycled tiles and bricks salvaged from demolished local villages. Opened 5 December 2008; Lu Ban Prize, 2009.
Wang Shu again. Looks like a partly-collapsed mountain. ~1h from Hangzhou. Worth the day trip.
3,780 m^2 independent bookstore in a former underground parking lot/bomb shelter beneath Wutaishan Stadium, Nanjing. Opened 2004. Listed by BBC and CNN among the world's most beautiful bookshops.
Underground bunker bookshop, Nanjing. Cult favorite.
Designed like a black-stone gash in the earth. ~1h from Hangzhou by HSR; overwhelming.
Tongzi dan in Dongyang. Acquired taste, photogenic story.
Theme park in Changzhou, Jiangsu, inspired by video game franchises (notably resembling World of Warcraft and StarCraft) but not officially licensed by Activision Blizzard.
Bootleg WoW/Starcraft theme park, Changzhou. Cult curiosity.
Mt. Sanqing, Jiangxi.
Nanjing lake park.
Steep stair-temple, Nanjing. Pair with Massacre Memorial.
Hefei art piece.
