An old Chinese proverb says, “Shang you tian tang, xia you su hang,” which translates to “Heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below.”

Described by Marco Polo in the 13th century as the most beautiful and magnificent city in the world, Hangzhou, 110 miles southwest of Shanghai, and the capital of China’s Zhejiang province, was also named by Travel + Leisure as one of the best places to travel in 2016. (We’ll save the city of Suzhou for another time.)

It is a wealthy city of 9 million people. Alibaba.com has its headquarters there. Explorers, poets and artists have long been captivated by Hangzhou and the ethereal quality of its central West Lake and cultural heritage.

The bed

In preparation for the G-20 Summit in September, several new shining stars have made their debut, one of which is the 417-room, Midtown Shangri-La Hangzhou, the group’s second hotel in the city. With comfortable and spacious rooms, impeccable service and first-class dining, it also has a signature Chi Spa and a fantastic brewery headed by talented Australian brewmaster Josh Staines. Staines brews five regular ales named after local subway stops, and three specialty brews, including a summer ale infused with passion fruit. 6 Changshou Road, Kerry Central. Telephone: 866-565-5050. Website: shangri-la.com.

The Midtown is also just a stone’s throw from Hangzhou’s picturesque West Lake. It has wide causeways for walking and bike riding, numerous temples and pavilions to explore and wooden boats to hire by the hour. There is also a nearly continuous fascinating parade of local life with impromptu outdoor ballroom dancing, tai chi (traditional and on roller skates), all means of exercise classes and plenty of lovers taking advantage of the romantic environs.

The meals

Hangzhou kitchen is known as one of the eight major types of Chinese cuisine. Fairly light by Chinese standards, the most popular dishes are West Lake grass carp, shallot-stuffed crepes, Dongpo pork with Shaoxing wine, and Victory Cake. My friends and I tried all of these in one of the picturesque dining rooms at the Hangzhou Cuisine Museum. But be forewarned, while the menu with its colorful pictures accurately displays the delicious food, the descriptions — no doubt courtesy of Google Translate — will provide diners with comic relief. (Chicken stew Dictyophora or Bacteria burning sea cucumber, anyone?) The museum has a well-curated display of Chinese history as it relates to Hangzhou cuisine and culinary traditions, with replicas of more than 400 local dishes. The museum’s small gift shop sells realistic-looking replicas. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m., closed Mondays. 9 Fenghuangshan Road. Telephone: 571-8792-1117. Website: zghbc.com (site only in Chinese).

A marvelous dinner at the award-winning Jin Sha Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel — the only hotel directly on West Lake — was a dining extravaganza. Peony shrimps with plums in rice wine, pan-fried abalone with minced fish, and stewed duck with vermicelli and truffle sauce, coupled with excellent Chinese wines from Kanaan Winery, risked turning me into a Hangzhou poet. 5 Lingyin Road. Telephone: 571-8829-8888. Website: Fourseasons.com.

The finds

Despite its size, one of the most remarkable aspects of Hangzhou is its natural beauty. Besides West Lake, nowhere is this more evident than Xixi National Wetlands Park, the first in the country, just 3 miles away. With more than 170 bird species, the park contains 2,800 acres and 60 miles of waterways grouped into three causeways: Fu, Lu and the longest, Shou, meaning “prosperity,” “status” and “longevity.”

With our local guide Emma and our conical-hatted fisherman, we took one of the wooden longboats for a glorious ride along the Fu Causeway from south to north. Passing the Plum and Bamboo Villa, and the Xialongtan Ecological reserve, we came upon several small boats with working cormorants — large, raven-colored, heavy-boned aquatic birds known for their diving and fishing skills. These gangly worker birds, with strings tied snugly around their necks to forestall swallowing, repeatedly dived, caught fish and brought their catch to the waiting fisherman. Emma told us the cormorants were rewarded at day’s end with fish of their own.

As we continued northbound, our ever-smiling fisherman tossed over some nets and, within minutes, brought up an enormous silver carp. A half-hour later we alighted at the Misty Fishing Village Landing Dock where the fish was cooked with red peppers to perfection for our tasty lunch. Tian Mu Shan Road. Telephone: 0571-8810-6688. Website: Xixiwetland.com.cn.

In Hangzhou’s east side and perched on a hill is Wushan Square and the reconstructed Chenghuang (City God) Pavilion. On a clear day one can have a great view of West Lake. Nearby Hefang Street, a well-preserved pedestrian walkway of crafts, candies and must-have tchotchkes that one doesn’t actually need but wants anyway, makes for a pleasant stroll. A block away is the Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which contains a dispensing pharmacy where the venerable Mr. Ding, a 67-year-old herbalist, has, for the past 50 years, been compounding traditional medicines. 95 Dajing Alley, Shangcheng. Telephone: 571-8702-7507. Website: hqyt.com.

Around the corner is the grand home and gardens of Hu Xueyan, the first owner of the pharmacy. Even though a member of the merchant class, Hu was given an officer’s rank in the Qing Imperial Court and granted the rare permission by Empress Dowager Cixi to ride a horse in Beijing’s Forbidden City.

As tea is the national drink of China, and Hangzhou is home of the acclaimed Longjing (Dragon Well) green tea, no journey to Hangzhou would be complete without stopping at the National Tea Museum, the only one in China specializing in tea and tea culture. Both admission to the museum and tea tasting are free.

We sampled four different teas under our docent’s steady and steaming pour — Oolong, Pu’er, Jasmine and Longjing — and communally decided the Jasmine was our favorite. In the museum are various sections: Tea History Hall, reflecting the origins of tea and its medicinal properties, including relics such as a Han Dynasty porcelain stove, and Tea Customs Hall, where you can travel around the world without moving and learn how tea drinkers worldwide enjoy their brew. 268 Wengjia Hill. Telephone: 571-8796-4221. Website: teamuseum.cn.

The lessons learned

Spending a few days in Hangzhou will remind you that Marco Polo’s genius was not that he was the first European to travel to China, but that he was the first to dictate a comprehensive and meticulous archive of his sojourn there. Despite time and modernization, many of Polo’s descriptions of 13th-century Hangzhou ring true today, and reflect that Polo may indeed have been more of a poet than any of us realized.

Julie L. Kessler is a travel writer, attorney and legal columnist based in Los Angeles and author of the award-winning book “Fifty-Fifty: The Clarity of Hindsight.”