Shop by craft
Best of Hangzhou; search or filter for all 7
Wushan / Hefang Street, Hangzhou
Opened by the merchant Hu Xueyan in 1874, Hu Qing Yu Tang earned the title 'Pharmacy King of Jiangnan' for its scrupulously sourced pills, powders and herbal pastes. The Qing-era dispensary below Wushan Hill still compounds hundreds of traditional remedies and keeps a museum of Chinese medicine behind its carved timber hall.
Best for Traditional Chinese herbal remedies and tonics
Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Founded in 1875, Wangxingji built its name on black-paper folding fans coated in persimmon lacquer and on scented sandalwood fans, a range that now covers more than ten thousand designs across nineteen categories. National and provincial intangible-heritage masters still cut, mount and hand-paint the fans at the Hangzhou workshop, which pairs its retail hall with a small fan museum.
Best for Hand-painted folding fans and sandalwood fans
Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Zhang Xiaoquan has forged scissors in the Hangzhou tradition since 1628, and in 2006 its layered steel-and-iron forging technique was listed among China's first National Intangible Cultural Heritage items. The centuries-old name now also makes kitchen knives, garden tools and cutting boards.
Best for Heritage Chinese scissors and kitchen knives
The Zhang clan moved to Hangzhou and founded Zhang Xiaoquan in 1628, building scissors from fine steel sourced from Longquan and combining it with ancestral forging craftsmanship. The brand takes its place among a handful of Chinese trade names that have operated under the same identity for close to four centuries.
Its reputation reached the imperial court during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735-1796), when Zhang Xiaoquan scissors were presented to the royal family and used within the palaces -- a mark of prestige that helped cement the brand's standing through the centuries that followed. In 2006, the State Council listed the company's layered steel-and-iron forging technique in the first official batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage items, formally recognising the craft.
Today the company trades well beyond scissors, with product lines spanning kitchen knives, cutting boards and garden and pruning tools sold through retail stores, e-commerce platforms and its own online shop -- one of the oldest surviving names in Chinese cutlery still trading under its original mark.
Hangzhou / China
CHOISI in Hangzhou is a design studio specializing in bespoke 3D-printed contemporary products and furniture.
Best for Bespoke 3D-printed contemporary products
West Lake, Hangzhou
Founded in 1984 in Longjing village near Shifeng peak, Gongpai holds the first license to use West Lake Longjing's official geographical-protection trademark. It grades pan-fired Dragon Well by harvest date, prizing the earliest pre-Qingming pick.
Best for It grades pan-fired Dragon Well by harvest date
Gongpai is the tea brand of the Hangzhou West Lake Longjing Tea Company, founded in 1984 as a township enterprise at the foot of Shifeng (Lion Peak) in Longjing village, inside the protected core growing zone that runs from Longjing and Shuangfeng villages toward Meijiawu. The company restructured into a shareholding enterprise in 1998, jointly owned by individuals, the local township government and an employee stock association. Its founder, Qi Guowei, registered the character 'Gong' (贡, meaning tribute) as a trademark and became the first producer approved to carry the official geographical-protection mark for West Lake Longjing tea, tying the brand directly to the region's own certification system rather than a generic 'Longjing-style' label. The company now farms roughly 88 hectares of core production land, has been named a Zhejiang provincial famous-brand product and a China famous agricultural brand, and supplied the official tea for the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit. Spring leaf is picked and graded by harvest date, with the earliest pre-Qingming flush — flat, jade-green tips prized for their chestnut aroma — sealed and sold separately from later-season picks. The company also runs its own West Lake Longjing Tea Museum on site, tying retail directly to the growing region's own history.
Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Established in 1975, Wensli turns Hangzhou mulberry silk into scarves, ties and framed silk artworks using a double-sided printing process it developed in-house, and it supplied ceremonial gifts for the G20 summit and the Asian Games. Its research center releases thousands of new patterns each year, sold alongside a silk culture museum that follows the fibre from cocoon to jacquard loom.
Best for Printed silk scarves and silk gifts
Gushan islet, West Lake, Hangzhou
Founded in 1904 on Gushan islet, the Xiling Seal Society is an institution devoted to seal engraving and stone-carved calligraphy, and its shop supplies hand-cut name seals, cinnabar seal paste, brushes and ink. Each object is checked by the society's craftsmen, continuing a scholarly tradition that has gathered seal artists for more than a century.
Best for Hand-carved name seals and seal paste
Neighbourhood walks
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