Hangchow: Resort of Leaders

ALIGHTHEARTED, relaxed garden town studded with classic temples and pagodas and elegant villas, Hangchow (pop.800,000) is China's Florence. Famous for its silks and teas, Hangchow is a favorite resort of China's leaders. Mao Tse-tung frequently retires to his retreat on mist-shrouded West Lake, sometimes merely to escape the rigors of the capital, sometimes to hold informal, substantive meetings with foreign visitors after the Peking formalities are out of the way.

West Lake, ringed by hills of transcendental beauty, is the centerpiece of a city redolent with memories of imperial history. Marco Polo, who saw Hangchow in the 13th century before it was savaged by Mongol invaders, found it "the most splendid city in the world." Its streets were "as smooth as the floor of a ballroom," its waters were rippled by "an endless procession of barges." its courtiers were "intent upon nothing but bodily pleasure and the delights of society."

The Nixons, who will probably stay as do most Western VIPs at a government guest house overlooking West Lake, will find the ambience somewhat different. In 1921, a group of young intellectuals from Shanghai met secretly on a sampan on nearby South Lake to organize the Chinese Communist Party. Today, the only people in Hangchow visibly intent on bodily pleasure are the shadowboxers who materialize in the lakeside parks to exercise every morning.

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