Foreign tourists , who take cross-cultural communication as their aim , will not fail to find museums , memorial halls and former residences of notable personages in Hangzhou. As a cultural and historic capital , Hangzhou boasts various national , provincial and municipal museums and memorial halls and many residences of historical VIPs . It is a remarkable place producing outstanding people . Their houses contain a variety of cultural relics , feature various architectural styles , or boast an ecological advantage . The interior and exterior decoration is both tasteful and delightful . The inside and outside layout is artistic and unique . Historieally , these house knew a lot os great events . Quite a few of them have been cited as local monuments . Even today , those located around West Lake have been regarded as a place of good geomantic omen(feng shui) or a place like Shangri-La. A special visit or a brief introduction to any of the former residences is rewarding and educational . As there are too many such places to go to , only a small number of them are recommended here for local guides and tourists from overseas.

 

China Tea Museum 

China Tea Museum is the only one of its kind in the country . Opened to the public in October 1990 , the museum is located in Double Peaks Tea Village West Lake Township . Occupying 1.67 hectares (4.12 acres) at present (with another 1.67 hectares of land being taken over for the 2   nd-phase project ), this national museum displays a bewildering variety of teas produced nationwide , ranging from black tae to green tea , from white tea to dark tea , from Yunnan brick tea to Fujian oolong (black dragon) tea . It consists of four separate buildings . Building No.1 is the exhibition building . It is divided into six exhibition rooms , including tea-growing histort , famous teas , tea customs , and tea sets . Building No.2 is used for reception and academic exchanges . Building No.3 has six tea rooms in different styles , where various teas can be samples . In Building No.4 tastefully demonstrated are tea art and tea ceremony , ancient and modem , Chinese and foreign.All in all, a major part of the museum is dedicated to tea culture . Visiting the museum therefore , is to learn about tea-growing and tea-drinking in different countries throughout the world , about all types of delicate tea-seta , and about various tea ceremonies that reigned or still reign in China.

China Silk Museum

China Silk Museum stands before Lotus Peak at the foot of Jade Emperor Hill. Opened to the public in 1992,it features silk production that has been going on in China for over 5 000 years.
With a floor space of  10 000 square meters(107 639 square feet),the museum falls into eight  exhibition halls, including the silk cultural relies hall, the silkworm breeding and mulberry growing hall, the silk spinning hall, the silk weaving hall, the silk printing and dyeing hall, the modern achievement hall, and the folk custom hall.
Exhibits on display include unearthed silk fabrics dating form the New Stone Age till the Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties as well as the best products from different parts of China. Also recorded here is the time-honored history related to the three Silk Routes across the desert, by land and by sea.
On display, too, are tools and machines, ancient and modern, that describe the whole process of silk production from silkworm breeding (both mulberry worms and tussahs), reeling, spinning, weaving, printing to dyeing.

Southern Song Imperial Kiln Museum 

Situation at the foot of Turtle Hill south of Jade Emperor Hill,Southern Song Imperial Kiln Museum , which opened in October 1992,occupies one hectare(2.47 acres)of land.Built on the site of the Southern Song Imperial Kiln,the museum is China's only special ont of its kind.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, its capital city of Hangzhou flourished as a major center of porcelain production.As the city was where the imperial court was located, the kilns in it mostly made poreclain for the exclusive user of the emperors orthe imperial courts.The porcelain fell into two types,namely,porcelain for daily use and porcelain fir decorative purpose.
With the total floorage of 3,400 square meters(36,597 square feet), the present museum consists of three sections: a cultural relies exhibition,a workshop and protected site of Dragon Kil.The exhibition section is further divided into three halls.The first hall displays moure than 100 unearthed ancient porcelain articles and exquesite cultural objects,including State 1st or 2nd-class  cultural treasures.The second hall reflects the history of China's ancient porcelain and social,political and economic introduction during the construction of the imperial kiln.The third one presents a systematic introduction to the development of ceramics in ancient China and the shape,style,glaze and craftsmanship of porcelain produced in the kiln as well as the latest achievements in developing porcelain in the Sourthern Song way.
he second and third sections refer to two historic sites,where Southern Song porcelain making is demonstrated.To protect them,a hall and a corridors have been built .At the workshop in the hall.a small kiln furnace and some equipment are available for vistors to make a porcelain base and mold souverinrs after kiln porducts. The Dragon Kiln in the corridor is constructed on the hill-slope 40.8 meters(133.9 feet)in height and 2 meters(6.6 feet) in average width.On the flat ground nearby is a workshop for makingt porcelain. 

Huqingyutang Traditional Chinese Medicin Museum 

China boasts two best-known traditional medicine stors - one in Beijing and the other in Hangzhou - as the saying goes,"While there is Tong Ren Tang in the Nroth,there is Huqingyutang in the South."Huqingutang or Hu Qingyu Tang is made up of three parts.The first part - "Hu"(胡) - stands for the family name and the founder -cum -owner Hu Xueyan(胡雪岩:1823 - 1885)."Qingyu" as the second part means "auspicious happeness in superabundance".And the third part "Tang" referes to a pharmacy,or to be more exact,a traditional Chinese medicine maker.Located in Dajing Lane at the foot of Wu Hill,Huqingyutang(HQYT) was founded in 1878 by the famous Qing busenessman Hu Xueyan.It is a 120 - year - old business preparing herbal medications.Known as a court-style pharmacy,it features typical architectural style of the Qing Dnasty.Whoever visits the place is likely to be as much impressed by its unique building as by the medications it produces.Simple,tastetul and unsophisticated .the building is a rare,well-preserved Qing-style structure for industry and commerce.In 1988, it was listed as one of the major national monuments.