Much of the reason for coming to Shaoxing is to experience the charm and beauty of its outlying sights. Beyond Shaoxing, but still easily accessible from town, Dong Hu (East Lake; daily 7am-5.30pm; ¥5) is an attractive twenty-minute ride away on the #1 bus route (ask the conductor to tell you when to get off). Despite appearances, the lake is not a natural one. In the seventh century the Sui rulers quarried the hard green rock east of Shaoxing for building, and when the hill streams were dammed, the quarry became a lake, to which, for picturesque effect, a causeway was added during the Qing. The cliff face and lake are surrounded by a maze of streams, winding paths, pagodas and stepping-stone bridges. The lake is highly photogenic (Emperor Qin Shi Huang commented on its beauty when he visited here more than 2000 years ago), with the massive cliff edge of the quarry leaning over its whole length, the colours and contortions of the rock face reflected in the water. Once inside the site, you can rent a little boat (three people maximum; ¥30) to take you around the various caves, nooks and crannies in the cliff face. You can also be dropped on the opposite shore from where a flight of steps leads up to a path running to the cliff top, offering superb views over the surrounding paddy fields. The last bus back to Shaoxing leaves around 5.30pm.

There's also plenty of water transport around the area. You can take a boat back to Shaoxing instead of returning on the bus (45min; ¥45 per boat after bargaining), or continue on to Yu Ling, threading through the network of waterways. This is a great trip (1hr 20min; ¥65 per boat after bargaining) on long, slim, flat-bottomed boats with a curved awning where you can sit in the shade as you glide past the paddy fields, the peace broken only by the occasional goose or duck. In the stern, the boatman steers with a paddle and propels the boat with his bare feet on the loom of the long oar.

Yu Ling itself (Tomb of Yu; daily 8am-4pm; ¥10) is tucked into the hillside, a heaped-up chaos of temple buildings in a beautiful setting of trees, mossy rocks and mountains. Legendary founder of the Xia dynasty, around 2000 BC, Yu earned his title "Tamer of Floods" by tossing great rocks around and dealing with the underwater dragons who caused so many disasters. It took him eight years to control a great flood in the Lower Yangzi, after which he settled, and died, here. The first temple was probably built around the sixth century AD, while the actual tomb, which seems to pre-date the temple, may be Han dynasty. The temple today, most recently restored in the 1930s, contains a large painted figure of Yu and scores of inscribed tablets. Outside the temple, the tall, roughly shaped tombstone is sheltered by an elegant open pavilion. The vigorous worshipping you'll see inside the temple shows what a revered figure Yu still is in modern China. Bus #2 links Yu Ling to Shaoxing.

Another wonderfully rural excursion from Shaoxing is out to Lanting , the Orchid Pavilion (daily 7.30am-5pm; ¥10), 11km southwest of Shaoxing, named when Goujian, a Yue Kingdom king, planted an orchid here almost three thousand years ago. The fourth-century poet and calligrapher Wang Xizhi allegedly composed the Orchid Pavilion Anthology here, today considered one of the masterpieces of Chinese poetry. Wang held a party with 41 friends, sitting along a creek and floating cups full of wine along it. When a cup stopped, the person sitting nearest either had to drink from the cup or compose a poem. Wang later composed the Anthology as a preface to all the poems. Today Lanting is considered a shrine, a place of real resonance for all Chinese serious about calligraphy and poetry. Inside Wang's ancestral shrine, located on a small island in the middle of spacious gardens, you can watch artists and calligraphers craft their oeuvres. There's also some classic Chinese countryside around here with paddy fields and green hills on all sides, while inside the Lanting site you'll find geese, bamboo thickets, ferns, lakes and tea houses as well as small exhibition halls. Lanting is on the #3 bus route from Jiefang Lu (45min), but you'll have to ask locals where to get off.