Hangzhou Metro is a railway system serving China's capital of Zhejiang province, along with the former satellite towns and villages which have now been absorbed into the metropolitan area. It has 12 colour-coded lines, which run in tunnels under the city and become elevated further away from the built-up core of the city. Its total length is 516 kilometres and includes commuter lines to the nearby cities of Shaoxing, Haining, and Jiaxing.
It is operated by two different companies - most lines are managed by the Hangzhou Metro Corporation, whereas two lines, 1 and 5, are instead the responsibility of a local branch of the Hong Kong MTR Corporation. There is no difference in practise, however, besides a different logo on the station signs. What follow are a few points of interest for riders:
The lines are known by their numbers - While they have colours on maps and signage, metro lines are referred to by numbers, as they can be read by both Chinese and English speakers. Some lines have very similar colours regardless (lines 10, 3, 16, and the Deqing commuter line are all shades of yellow or orange), making it rather difficult to do so.
There are no circular lines - Rather than a radial and spoke design common in other cities, like Chengdu or Shanghai, Hangzhou's metro system has something of a spaghetti layout relying on individual crossover stations, rather than one line that crosses over with the others.
Most tickets are digital - While single-use ticket cards for new travellers and tourists are available, most residents use Alipay or Wechat applets, scanning QR codes at the ticket gate.
Security checkpoints - Every station has a metal detector before the ticket gates, though there are no patdowns or other checks - all that's required is placing your bag in the X-ray machine, and handing over any bottles to be weighed. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these checkpoints were used to ask riders to show their health codes and check their temperatures.
All trains are air-conditioned - The internal atmosphere is quite comfortable both in the tunnels, and outside on elevated lines.
Platform screens - Unlike the older platforms in Shanghai or Nanjing, all of Hangzhou's underground platforms have floor-to-ceiling barriers to prevent accidents, and prevent the wind from oncoming trains from bothering the passengers waiting on the platform.
All announcements are in Chinese and English - Platforms have screens showing a countdown to the next train, and the LED display in the train cars have station names in both Chinese characters and English. They also have screens showing advertising and Metro PS As.
