Hangzhou polishes image as a rewarding place to go

Crowds descend on West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Sept 10, the first weekend after the G20 Summit.[Photo by Li Zhong/For China Daily]

Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, a well-known holiday location in China, is rising as a world-class tourist destination after successful national-level marketing surrounding the G20 Leaders Summit earlier this month, experts said.

"The Great Wall, pandas, Tibet and the landscapes of the Guilin, are usually what foreigners equate with China. But the promotion of Hangzhou this month high-lighted its picturesque scenery and is likely to attract more foreign visitors," said Yang Yanfeng, a researcher with the China Tourism Academy.

Experts said they believe Hangzhou, which has seen a boom in tourists thronging to popular spots since summit ended on Sept 5, will continue to rise in popularity, especially on weekends and during the coming National Day holiday, which runs from Oct 1 to 7 - and even during Spring Festival in late January.

They said Hangzhou has made several breakthroughs in tourism in recent years that have made it a competitive tourist destination for natural landscapes.

For example, He Jianmin, a professor specializing in tourism management at Shanghai University of Finance, said West Lake has a free-entrance policy - the first for a national 5A-level tourist attraction since 2002.