A visit to Zhouzhuang

If you come to Shanghai, a quick day trip to one or two of the ancient water townships nearby is highly recommended.

There are many ancient water towns in Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou areas.

Among them, Zhouzhuang is the most well-known.

Zhouzhuang is the “Venice of the East”.

In the eyes of local Chinese people, Zhouzhuang is often called as “The Number One Water Town of China”.

Zhouzhuang has been around since 1086AD.

The tourists did not start to flock in until 1980's

What made Zhouzhuang a "water town" was that it was surrounded by lakes, rivers and canals.

Rivers and canals are literally “the streets”

People use boats to move around for even very short distance

Most residential houses were built with stairs connected down to the rivers from the backdoors.

It is said that 60 percent of the buildings in Zhouzhuang were constructed during Ming to Qing dynasties which is from 1368 to 1911.

A typical Chinese water town is poetically portrayed to have three major features - “compact bridges, flowing water and clustered homes“.

Zhouzhuang has it all and more.

Some criticism said Zhouzhuang has became somewhat commercialized because of its popularity and successful advertising and gradually lost its original charms.

From what I experienced, I feel it is still a great place to visit and definitely is still one of the best.

I have visited another similar water town - Tongli, in this area a few years ago.

From my personal experience, Tongli, back then, was more tranquil and unspoiled, while Zhouzhuang offers more varieties and seems to be better preserved architecturally.

I like the fact that people are still living there so that you can observe a lot of things going on around you.

Strolling down on old stone roads or taking a “gondola” to enjoy the scene

Either way, the rich ancient culture and primitive folkways speak to you from every angles

It’s a place that you would not want to miss.

Especially if you love photographing, this town is the place!

From Shanghai, it takes about an hour or two to get there.

The condition of the roads to there are pretty good.

The tour "Pass" costs 100Rmb

The gondola is fun to try - it is 160Rmb per boat and it comes with a pot of tea and a plate of snack

You are expected to tip if the gondolier sings

One the local specialty cuisine is "Won-Shan" pork shank stew

It is very delicious (if you dare to try)!