Transportation

Hangzhou is a convenient city in which to travel. Most students purchase bicycles soon after arrival and live either on campus or within a twenty-minute ride away. A high-quality Giant bicycle may be purchased here for as low as CNY 398 (USD 49). While an inexpensive Chinese brand may be purchased for as low as CNY 160 (USD 20), the quality of bicycles at this price is quite poor and are actually unsafe to ride.

You can purchase a range of higher quality inexpensive Chinese brand bicycles at Trust Mart on the second floor of the Yellow Dragon Sports Stadium, and you can purchase Giant brand bikes at the outlet located near campus. For the address of these locations, see the Local Listings of the Directions page of this site.

Taxis in Hangzhou are ubiquitous, inexpensive, and some of the cleanest and most comfortable in China. Most taxis are fully air-conditioned, and many are equipped with inline GPS and flat-screen televisions for the convenience of the passenger. Most destinations in the city proper can be reached for about USD 1.69 (the starting fair is only USD 1.20 for the first 4 kilometers, USD 1.45 for the first 8 kilometers, and USD 0.29 for each kilometer after). Three companies in Hangzhou purchased one-hundred Mercedes Benz on February 8, 2005, the last day of the lunar Year of the Monkey as part of a city plan to put five-hundred of such taxis on the streets of Hangzhou by the end of the Year of the Rooster (the fair for these luxury taxis is only USD 1.44 for the first 4 kilometers and USD 0.36 for each additional one). Although it can take over fifteen minutes to find a taxi during rush hour and longer during heavy rain, at most other times one can be hailed in just one or two minutes and there is 24-hour service throughout the city.

After becoming more familiar with the city, some students prefer to travel by bus. There are a range of buses in Hangzhou, and most adopt a standard fair between any two stops, but fairs range according to the standard of the bus, which are divided into common (USD 0.12), air-conditioned (USD 0.24), and double-decker London style and San Francisco style streetcar tour buses (USD 0.36 or more). There is a major bus stop for several lines conveniently located at the front gate of Zhejiang University, and all but the most common buses announce stops in both Chinese and English. Students may elect to purchase a public transport IC Card that can be used to charge bus fairs.

The Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH) is the largest in the province and located just 27 kilometers from downtown, with direct international flights to Hong Kong, Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, and Singapore. Hangzhou has four long-distance bus stations, providing several direct connections to nearby cities anywhere in the province and to several cities outside the province like Shanghai and Nanjing. There are also two long-distance train stations in Hangzhou, with service to these and all major cities in China, including five high-speed express trains to Shanghai every day.

Domestic flights are now much cheaper since China opened the aviation market to private carriers in 2004. On July 22, 2005, the Shanghai-based private budget carrier Spring Airlines became the third private airline company to enter the new market, offering tickets 20% lower than state owned companies. Airfare between the famous tourist destination Guilin and Shanghai is as low as CNY 299 (USD 37), and the company also offers flight to and from Kunming, Yantai, Nanchang, and Mianyang.

Students who want to book domestic tickets in advance online may find other inexpensive tickets through Chinese versions of PriceLine through these English language travel agents on line: E-Long or C-Trip.



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