It is late in the evening and despite the cool fall weather, people are still out strolling along West Lake, the piece de resistance of Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province. There are couples on a date, a family out walking, and then there are tourists like us.

West Lake has been the subject of poems and movies, and has also been attracting people for centuries, including Marco Polo, who was taken with the lake and described Hangzhou as the "finest and most splendid city in the world".

When asked about the city's best feature, Wang Guoping, Party secretary of Hangzhou municipal government, readily replies that it is West Lake.

"It is very rare that a lake has such a profound cultural heritage," Wang said during the Quality City and Tourism International Forum, held in Hangzhou last Tuesday.

The Chinese love to say: "Above, there is heaven and below, there is Hangzhou."

Besides West Lake, the city - which is just two and a half hours away from China's financial capital of Shanghai - has much more to offer. Though most of its key attractions are centered around West Lake, there are other reasons to visit the city, including tea plantations and the Hangzhou Xixi National Wetland Park.

The Hangzhou city government is also in the thick of preparations for the Beijing Olympics and the expected flow of tourists to other parts of China.

"The Olympics offer a general opportunity for all cities," Li Hong, director of Hangzhou tourism commission, said.

He noted that many Olympic tourists are likely to check out Beijing - the center of the Games, Shanghai and Xi'an because of the Terracotta Warriors. He said Hangzhou's proximity to Shanghai is the city's advantage in attracting tourists after the Games.

Earlier this year, Hangzhou was recognized as the best tourism city in China. In 2006, its GDP per capita was $6,000 and the government aims to increase this to $10,000 within three years.

Wang said they expect to host 2 million overseas tourists this year, noting that the city is ranked sixth in terms of tourist arrivals among Chinese cities. It also ranked fifth among Chinese cities with the most tourism revenue, and was in the top three (together with Beijing and Shanghai) as the choice destination for local tourists during the Golden Week holidays.

However, Wang is quick to point out that Hangzhou's tourism development will not be at the expense of its residents, saying that the government wants to create a balance between tourism and quality of life.

"Many are skeptical about the local government's efforts in promoting quality of life but we educate people, create new job opportunities for them and bring in revenue for the government," Wang said.

"Having done these things, our people will understand that development brings them greater benefits."

He added that a high GDP is not important in determining the success of a city, but the state of the people is.

The city's tourism commission, meanwhile, is still looking for more ways to encourage people to stay longer in Hangzhou.

"People come here for culture and sightseeing but their time of stay is not long. How can we make people stay longer, create more activities for people to see, to experience, to feel?" Li said.

Li is being modest, there are already a lot of things to see and do here. For shopaholics looking for a new experience, there is Qinghefang Historical Street that combines history and shopping. The shops sell everything from local handicrafts to Olympics souvenirs. There is also a traditional Chinese medicine museum, and a shop selling traditional medicines and a teahouse that showcases one of the city's specialties.

In the evening, one can enjoy the musical and dancing epic A Thousand Years Feeling, which features gorgeous costumes and sets, and even live horses. The theater production is a wonderful fusion between traditional Chinese opera and the Moulin Rouge.

Then, of course, there is West Lake. On the afternoon we took a boat ride across the lake on the way to Leifeng Pagoda, there were a lot of wedding couples having their photos taken, using the lake's magnificent views as background.

Aside from West Lake, it's worth visiting Leifeng Pagoda, from where you can get a great view of the city.

This alone is enough for the jaded tourist to agree with Marco Polo and others who fell in love with Hangzhou, myself included, that the city is indeed paradise on earth.

Asia News Network