Parking Costs 30 Yuan per Hour! Hangzhou West Lake's Discouragement Tactic Is Deliberate

Someone drove to West Lake and waited an hour in line to get into the parking lot.

Once inside: ¥30 per hour.

On February 22nd, the tourist filmed a video on the spot, just to warn out-of-towners — if you can avoid parking at West Lake, don't bother.

Netizen comment: "Genuinely shocked. Never going back."

The most outrageous part? This isn't new at all. A well-known local tour guide said this policy has been in place for a full 10 years, with one purpose only: to stop you from driving there and push you onto public transit.

And they never intended to profit from parking fees. The guide's exact words: West Lake, Lingyin Temple, and Feilai Peak are all free to enter — if it were really about money, why bother with this?

Also, the scenic area has already explained itself. The ¥30-per-hour rate only applies during daytime on Spring Festival and National Day Golden Week holidays. Now that the holiday is over, the fee has long since returned to the normal ¥10 per hour.

The Hangzhou Municipal Development and Reform Commission also weighed in: this is called differentiated pricing — higher during peak holiday seasons, cheaper at other times — designed to use price as a lever to guide tourists toward public transportation.

In plain terms, that ¥30 rate is the government deliberately making you think twice.