Hangzhou East Railway Station 2026: West Lake, metro & the airport

Hangzhou has three main rail stations and visitors regularly book the wrong one. A ticket that says only 杭州 is not this station — it is the old central Chengzhan station, and it is the easiest mistake to make because the English on booking sites renders both as "Hangzhou". Read the full Chinese name: 杭州东 is this station, 杭州 is Chengzhan, 杭州西 is Hangzhou West. Hangzhou East is the biggest and the default for almost everyone. Hangzhou Station ("Chengzhan") (杭州站): The old central station, and the one a ticket showing plain 杭州 means. Closer to West Lake than this station but with far fewer high-speed services, and travellers warn against it with heavy luggage — stairs, few lifts. Metro Lines 1 and 5; about 21 minutes from here on Line 1. Hangzhou West Railway Station (杭州西站): Opened 2022 out in Yuhang on the north-west edge, about 23 km from the lake, and it took over the westbound and southbound corridors when it did. Metro Lines 3 and 19; Line 19 links it to here directly.

Metro Line 1, ~17 min, ¥4. Metro Line 1 toward 湘湖, five stops to 龙翔桥, no change. Leave by Exit C and walk west along 平海路 about 500 m to the lakefront. For the Broken Bridge end, get off a stop earlier at 凤起路. On weekends and public holidays the West Lake area runs odd/even plate restrictions and closes roads to through traffic, so a car can be stopped short of the lake. Combined with Amap timing the drive at more than twice the metro, the honest advice for this station is that the metro is not merely cheaper — it is usually faster.

Metro Line 19, the express line, four stops from the East Plaza concourse (火车东站东广场) — not the Line 1/4 station. Serves both Terminal 3 and Terminal 4; check which one your flight uses, because the exits differ. The door-to-door figure includes about 1 km of walking at the airport end. That is ~25 min riding, ~40 min door to door for ¥7. Line 19 from the East Plaza concourse. The catch is that it is a separate station from Lines 1 and 4 — you leave one gateline and walk through the arrivals hall to the other, which is where people lose ten minutes they had not budgeted. Allow about 2.5 hours door to gate for a domestic flight and 3 for an international one.

About 34-75 minutes to Shanghai Hongqiao, with roughly 328 services a day across the corridor — frequent enough that the two cities work as a day trip in either direction, which is what makes Hangzhou the classic escape from Shanghai. Second class runs about ¥34-87 depending on the train, first class ¥101-140. Book on the official 12306 app or on Trip.com; outside holiday peaks turning up and buying is realistic, but a reserved seat is wise in busy season.

Read the gate number off your ticket: low numbers are at the western end of the building and high ones at the eastern end, with the split falling around 15. A ticket showing gate 7 therefore means the West Plaza, and gate 23 means the East Plaza — and those two ends are several hundred metres apart, so picking the wrong entrance costs about ten minutes with luggage. Coming by metro, Lines 1 and 4 sit nearer the West Plaza and Lines 6 and 19 nearer the East Plaza. Exits C1, C2, C3 and D (Lines 1/4) lead to the West Plaza end, nearest ticket gates 1-15. Exits A and E (same station, other side) lead to the East Plaza end, nearest ticket gates 16-28. Exits F and J (Line 6), G, H1 and H2 (Line 19) lead to the East Plaza metro concourse.

They are two separate stations, not two platforms of one. Lines 1 and 4 use the 火车东站 station; Lines 6 and 19 use 火车东站(东广场), under the East Plaza. You leave one gateline, walk through the station's B1 arrivals hall — indoors now, where it used to mean crossing the surface — and pass through security again at the other. Allow about 15 minutes with luggage. On the fare, Hangzhou Metro treats this as a “virtual interchange”: re-enter within 30 minutes and the two rides are billed as one continuous journey. The catch is that it does not apply to single-journey tickets, so pay with a transit card or an app QR code if you want it.

Yes, but not usually through the automated gates. Use the staffed lane. Travellers report the automated gates here read a foreign passport unreliably and that people get stuck at them holding up the queue. The staffed lane sits at the far left or far right of the gate line; staff scan the passport or check the booking by hand, usually 1-3 minutes off-peak. Allow 20-30 minutes more than usual at holiday peaks. There is no paper ticket to collect — the passport you booked with is the document. Book through the official 12306 app or site, which registers foreign passports, or on Trip.com's English site.

Yes, at several price points. B1 arrivals — yellow self-service lockers either side of the north and south exits, about a minute off the train — roughly ¥4 an hour for a small locker, ¥5 medium, ¥6 large, capped around ¥40-60 for 24 hours. Inside the metro stations — the same yellow lockers, cheaper, but behind metro security — about ¥3 an hour for a large one, capped around ¥30 (retrieve before the metro closes, around 22:30). Staffed left-luggage shops near both plazas, off the arrivals level — about ¥15-20 per item per day — under half the locker price, and they take cases the lockers will not. Outdoor lockers on the East and West plazas (24 hours — the option that still works for a late-night arrival). The short version: lockers for a couple of hours, a staffed counter for anything longer.

A free rest area on the east side of the arrivals level, near the P1 car park, with seats and charging points, open around the clock. Overnight there is also a converted green-liveried train parked on the East Plaza — four carriages, 126 reclining powered seats, air-con, lockers, USB charging, hot water and blankets, free, 22:00 to 08:00, for passengers departing late at night or arriving after about 23:50. Registration is at the desk inside and it fills first-come-first-served. ⚠️ It is signed and staffed in Chinese, and we have not been able to confirm whether a passport is accepted in place of a Chinese ID card.