Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake

Four Seasons' Hangzhou property makes a bold wager: that a hotel built this century could adopt the classical Jiangnan garden language—whitewashed walls, grey tiled roofs, moon gates, water at every turn—and feel authentic beside China's most painted landscape. The wager pays. Low pavilions arrange themselves around lagoons planted with lotus, black swans patrol the waterways, and willow-fringed paths lead toward the shore of West Lake itself, minutes from the Lingyin road.

Rooms and suites continue the vernacular with silk wall panels, carved screens and balconies over water or gardens, while a collection of villas adds private courtyards. Nothing is aggressively contemporary; the luxury lies in craftsmanship and the constant, composed presence of water outside the windows.

Jin Sha has grown into one of the country's most respected hotel Chinese restaurants, its Hangzhou and Cantonese cooking a destination in its own right, and the lagoon-side terrace makes summer dinners memorable. Twin pools—one a glass-roofed year-round affair—and a serene spa complete the resort rhythm. The lake's causeways, Longjing tea villages and old town are all within a short drive: this is West Lake romance with full-service engineering underneath.