West Lake is one of the rare UNESCO sites in China you can walk into for free, no ticket, no gate, no timed entry, which surprises a lot of first-time visitors expecting a paid World Heritage attraction. The lake itself, its two causeways, and Solitary Hill are all open access. What UNESCO actually inscribed in 2011 is the landscape as a whole, not any single ticketed building, and understanding that distinction changes how you should spend a day here.