Couples stroll hand-in-hand beneath weeping willow trees, as pleasure crafts glide across tranquil lake waters. Nearby, a green patchwork of tea plantations blankets rolling hills. Farther off, misty mountains frame a scene that's right out of a classic Chinese landscape painting.

Hangzhou (hong-joe), a city of 4 million people and located 110 miles from Shanghai in eastern China, has long been portrayed in Chinese stories and songs as a garden paradise.

Famous in the Middle Kingdom, Hangzhou is thick with Chinese tourists, who are drawn to its historic sites, its serenity and its lush subtropical climate.

Both Hangzhou's historical and present-day attractions center on West Lake, a big body of water crossed by causeways and pedestrian bridges, built 800 years ago when Hangzhou was the imperial capital of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279).

Neither the modern concrete culverts nor tall buildings crowd the lake, which has been preserved as the precious liquid heart of the city. West Lake is a favorite for recreational boaters, school groups on outings, lovers intent on finding some quiet time, locals setting off on walkabouts or doing tai chi in the morning, connoisseurs of gardens and parks. Virtually all the land that rings the lake is a public park.

In the park, things are more dynamic and diverse. Traditional Chinese landscaping -- pruned trees and shrubs, quiet pools of water, stone statuary, and pagodas with curved-rooftops -- predominates and tour groups walk the busy grounds.

The cooling breezes of West Lake are best enjoyed on the water. Boats are everywhere, ranging from two-person rowboats for hire to fancifully decorated ferries that circumnavigate the lake, with its poetically named scenic spots: Lotus in the Breeze at Crooked Courtyard, Three Pools Mirroring the Moon. A turn around the lake takes about an hour.

At night, West Lake becomes the watery site of an imaginative, at times startling, multimedia show called "Impression West Lake." Directed by Zhang Yimou, China's most famous film director, the nightly performance is a skillfully crafted fusion of light, sound and movement. Based on an old Chinese love story, it is performed literally in and on the lake, on barges and atop platforms submerged in several inches of water. Injunctions against taking photographs are roundly ignored by fans, who brandish phone cameras in lakeside bleacher seats, trying to capture the show's visual magic. Performances, distinguished by ever-shifting lighting and colors, have a spectral quality that meshes well with Japanese New Age composer Kitaro's music. The show lasts about an hour.