https://www.scmp.com/rss/281952/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Like its sun-dappled, tree-lined streets, Hangzhou's cuisine is light and fresh. Here are three places to try Hangzhou's local cuisine while you are visiting the city. Grandma's Kitchen, a 12-year-old chain of cheap and cheerful restaurants, is so beloved that eager diners have been known to queue for up to three hours for a table. There are 30 branches across the city, but the most popular is the Hubin Lu outpost, just across the street from West Lake. Grandma's Kitchen, at 2/F, 3 Hubin Road,... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076997/cheap-cheerful-and-tasty?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076997/cheap-cheerful-and-tasty?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 06:13:26 +0000 Immortalised in poetry and art for its bucolic and pastoral beauty, Hangzhou is riding a boom in tourism, as visitors flock to the city's scenic spots. Last year, the city played host to more than 70 million visitors, 3 million of whom were international, an increase of more than 10 per cent over 2010, according to Minnie Xu, general manager of Hangzhou's JW Marriott and Courtyard by Marriott. The boom may yet be in its early stages, as the city "hopes to grow annual guests to 100 million in the... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076942/tourism-explosion?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076942/tourism-explosion?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:44:16 +0000 The Xixi Wetlands, China's only national wetland park, is 6km west of central Hangzhou in a gorgeous setting of mulberry trees, bamboo groves, lagoons and soft, rippling canals. People have been living in the wetlands for almost 2,000 years, weaving silk and fishing, and the park aims to enshrine that ancient way of life. The park has a silk-weaving museum and boat rides through the many canals created by six causeways and innumerable small islands of bamboo and mulberry. The overall design was... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076935/serene-journey-back-gentler-times?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076935/serene-journey-back-gentler-times?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:35:59 +0000 Hangzhou was once known as Lin'an, the last capital of the Song dynasty before it fell to Kublai Khan's armies in the late 13th century. Few regions are as productive and fertile as the Lower Yangtze around Hangzhou, and the commercial power of the area's silk, tea and rice-growing regions helped keep the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) alive after the Jurchen overran the north and established the Jin dynasty (1115-1234). After the fall of the north to the Jurchen invaders, Hangzhou grew into... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076933/restored-former-glories?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076933/restored-former-glories?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:32:00 +0000 Few man-made things are etched as deeply in the Chinese consciousness as the Grand Canal, a 1,776km system of locks, canals and rivers that historically linked Hangzhou to Beijing and Xian, and from there to the Silk Road. The canal in Hangzhou dates back more than 1,000 years and was built through back-breaking labour by millions of workers. It continues to be a dynamic part of the city's economic and cultural life. While it once primarily transported grain, its main cargo today is coal and... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076932/grand-canal-becomes-backdrop-city-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076932/grand-canal-becomes-backdrop-city-life?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:26:40 +0000 Hangzhou's transformation from an industrial economy to one led by information technology and hi-tech enterprises has helped sustain growth in the city's office leasing market. Office rents maintain their incremental gains, although overall vacancy has increased due to a surge in supply in newly developed districts, according to Andrew Slevin, managing director at CBRE for east China. Average rent in the overall leasing market was 115.7 yuan (HK$141.3) per square metre in the first quarter of... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076925/growing-strong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076925/growing-strong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:16:10 +0000 Few products match the role of silk in Chinese culture. Once reserved for the imperial families, silk tied China to the world through the Silk Road, rooted in Hangzhou. Led by Hangzhou and Suzhou, China continues to be the world's largest silk exporter, owning 70 per cent of the production yield and 80 per cent of the global export trade, according to Frankie Kwok Yan-chi, assistant director of Tungtex Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed company with garment factories in Hangzhou and Guangdong. Silk... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076902/inextricable-link-silk-road?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076902/inextricable-link-silk-road?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:04:52 +0000 From the growth of the earliest civilisations to modern nation building and infrastructure development, road building has always been essential to a nation's coherency and its ability to grow, and there has always been a special place in history for the builders of roads. For Zhejiang Metong Road Construction Machinery, a Hangzhou-based company with a research and development base and a manufacturer of asphalt distribution machinery, China's infrastructure boom has provided the perfect... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076896/en-route-fast-growth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076896/en-route-fast-growth?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:01:25 +0000 Ford is to build a US$760 million assembly plant in Hangzhou, doubling its passenger car capacity in China to 1.2 million units a year by 2015. The new plant will be invested jointly by Ford and its joint venture Changan Ford Mazda Automobile (CFMA), with initial capacity of 250,000 units annually. This will bring Ford's total investment in China to about US$4.9 billion since 2006. Construction of the new plant will begin this year, with the first vehicle coming off the line in 2015. The move... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076886/kevin-tynan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076886/kevin-tynan?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:56:36 +0000 As China has roared into position as the world's largest car market, Hangzhou's production and components markets have gone along for the ride. With light-vehicle sales on the mainland surging from 5.3 million in 2005 to 17.9 million last year, Hangzhou's car industry is more potent than ever, according to Tim Dunne, director of global automotive operations for market research company JD Power. Today, the region hosts a mix of local companies and joint ventures, with international names, such as... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076881/road-success?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076881/road-success?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:50:41 +0000 The Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Area (HEDA) has fuelled the city's economic growth for two decades. Last year, 1,137 enterprises were set up, bringing in additional capital of 2.095 billion yuan (HK$2.556 billion), up 12.9 per cent from 2010. Although trade remained sluggish, HEDA's administration office reports continued growth this year in income, sales of consumer goods and fixed investment. For the past three years, HEDA has ranked in the top 10 of all state-level... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076874/technology-fuels-growth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076874/technology-fuels-growth?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:42:50 +0000 There is a Chinese saying: "Above is heaven, below is Hangzhou". If Hangzhou is indeed heaven on earth, it's not only for its beautiful scenery, but also culture and creativity - and the city is becoming known as creative hub. Hangzhou was included in Unesco's Creative Cities Network as a City of Crafts and Folk Art in April. The decision was made in recognition of its ability to place crafts at the core of its strategy to develop an environment conducive to the creative industry. This is in... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076871/centre-creativity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076871/centre-creativity?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:37:26 +0000 I've worked at hotels in three different markets in China. All were equally challenging, but there is a common thread: the people. Managing hotels in Beijing was much simpler before the 2008 Olympics as there were fewer choices. Room inventory increased dramatically and salaries grew to an almost unmanageable scale. Over time, the new hotels matured and have led to the presence of incredible brands. The most notable change has been in costs, specifically with regard to energy and labour. These... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076853/good-people-keep-guests-satisfied?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076853/good-people-keep-guests-satisfied?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:18:25 +0000 Beijing and Shanghai are the best cities for expatriates to live in. However, this may indicate that the two have the largest expat populations and better amenities, services and opportunities, instead of where they prefer to live. The 2011 Amazing China survey was conduced by Chinajob.com, under China's State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) between July last year and January, and ranks cities according to how livable they are for expats. A total of 18,000 votes were received... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076849/high-expectations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076849/high-expectations?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:13:22 +0000 It is a well-worn truth that employee-retention and turnover are serious issues for foreign businesses in China. Companies aiming to grow quickly and develop teams that know their culture often find themselves becoming revolving doors with spiralling training and induction costs. However, an often-ignored factor in these decisions is right at home: parents. In China, where it is normal for working university graduates to live at home until marriage, parents and grandparents have a big say in job... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076844/keeping-parents-happy-factor?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076844/keeping-parents-happy-factor?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:04:50 +0000 With Chinese companies increasingly seeking to take their place on the international stage, the search for top management talent has become more intense. Throughout the 1990s and even into the first half of the century's first decade, senior positions for multinationals were filled by people coming from global headquarters or from senior positions in other parts of the world, says Mick McGeehan, managing director of J.M. Gemini, a staffing solutions company. As the mainland develops, top talent... https://www.scmp.com/article/1076843/candidates-call-shots?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1076843/candidates-call-shots?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 02:59:52 +0000