Who Runs This Site

I'm a hiker based in Hangzhou, China. I've spent several years exploring the trails around West Lake, Longjing, Lingyin, and beyond — often helping visiting friends and colleagues figure out where to go, how to get there, and what to expect.

TrailsChina.com started as a set of notes for hiking around Hangzhou. It's built to grow city by city: we now cover Hangzhou and Shanghai, and we're steadily adding more cities across China. I write in English because there are surprisingly few practical, up-to-date English hiking resources for these places — yet each city has some of the most accessible and rewarding urban-adjacent trails anywhere in the country.

Why This Site Exists

Finding reliable English information about hiking in China's cities is harder than it should be. Most resources are either outdated blog posts, Chinese-only forum threads, or generic travel listicles that don't give you enough detail to actually plan a hike.

This site aims to fix that — with structured trail guides for every city we cover, including Chinese place names, public transport directions, seasonal notes, safety information, and honest assessments of what each route is really like.

Some route pages use a generic picture of the Hangzhou hills rather than a photograph of the route itself. Where a page carries a real photograph, and wherever its licence requires a credit, it is listed here.

Hupao Spring (虎跑梦泉), Hangzhou — the pool and the "Dreaming of the Tiger" sculpture group, used on the Hupao valley route card. Photograph by Sh1019, from Wikimedia Commons, taken in 2007, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped from the original to a wide banner and resized; that adaptation is offered under the same licence.

The Fuchun River at Tonglu (桐庐富春江) — the river valley, used on the Maling Ancient Path route card. Photograph by Gisling, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized from the original; that adaptation is offered under the same licence.

The Fuchun River between Fuyang and Tonglu — the river at the mouth of the creek valley, used in the same route's photo guide. Photograph by Jucember, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized from the original; that adaptation is offered under the same licence.

Tonglu from the air (桐庐) — the river bending through the county's hills, used on the Tonglu area page. Photograph by MNXANL, from Wikimedia Commons, taken in June 2018, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized from the original; that adaptation is offered under the same licence.