Day trip From Shanghai – Zhujiajiao Water Town

After an amazing day spent with nature at Guilin we finally arrived in one of the most vibrant and busy cities of China – Shanghai. Everyone has heard about the futuristic buildings and infrastructure China invests on and Shanghai is evident of this huge cash flow. However, this fast growing cosmopolitan isn’t the ancient China we saw in those old Kung Fu movies of the 80’s and 90’s. My search for one of those ancient towns ended at Zhujiajiao – An ancient water town located just 47KM outside Shanghai. Join us on a Day trip From Shanghai to the ancient Zhujiajiao Water Town.

An early morning start again and we were on our way to this well preserved town with 1400 years of History. Finally, we were in one of the major cities in China and getting around wasn’t so much of a problem. Though there were many options to reach Zhujiajiao we opted for the Metro. Read more about how to use Shanghai Metro – Click here

After 1Hr 15Mins journey, we were at Zhujiajiao – A suburb connected with a new metro line. The road from the metro to the water town is well marked and there are also tourist buses plying from the station to the water town. We opted to walk and it just took us 10 mins to reach the water ways.

Once you reach the waterways it’s all about exploring it on your own. There are maps in English to show you the various attractions and directions in which you need to head. One such map is shown below—

However, I would still advice to just follow the narrow alleyways next to the water and this would lead you deep into the water town. Aptly known as the “Venice of Shanghai”, Zhujiajiao features old streets paved with stone, curved rock bridges and over 10,000 buildings dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

It is said that if you visit Zhujiajiao Water Town without seeing the bridges means that you have not really been to Zhujiajiao at all! The old town is thoroughly connected by 36 delicate spans in different shapes and styles, from wooden to stone to marble.

Fangsheng Bridge is one of the main attractions among the ancient 36 stone bridges, some only one yard wide. It was built in 1812 and is said to be the largest stone arch bridge in Shanghai, resting on five arches, about 70 meters long, and 5.8 meters tall.

The whole of the water town is dotted with bubbling streams shadowed by willow trees, wooden boats offering a cruise and houses with courtyards attached to the rivers as a lifeline. The alleyways offer and sell everything one can think of.

Tip: Though the place is quite touristy, I would advice not to take one of the boat trips offered – instead walk around the waterways and you would definitely see more of this place on foot.

North Street (BeiDajie) is the best preserved ancient street with some of the buildings date to the Qing Dynasty era. Now plenty of restaurants, bars and coffee shops line both sides of the narrow street. We took a stroll along the street to see the ancient buildings, sample some local snacks and finally ended up in one of the restaurants housed in one of these ancient buildings for a nice meal with dumplings and curry. Located on a balcony with the river flowing down and a peep into the nearby old houses where families still work and live proved to be a perfect location to rest those tiring legs.

There are various studio/photo shops which offer pictures dressed in ancient Chinese attire. Well worth a try as they are reasonably priced at 10RMB per picture. You can choose the dress and they help you dress up and also do your hair and then click pictures next to the beautiful waterways with all sorts of props. It was surely fun.

Tip: There are quite few attractions listed on tourist sites for Zhujiajiao – some of which being paid including  Kezhi Garden,  Old post office and some temple/Monastery. And there are combo tickets offered which give access to combination of these sites and boat cruises. I would advice not to buy any of these. First of all the attractions are not so worth it and secondly you can buy individual tickets (rather than combo) at the entrance of these attractions as well. We ended up visiting none of paid attractions as the walk around the town itself had so much to offer.

Finally we made our way back to Shanghai using the metro after a well spend half day at Zhujiajiao. Read more about how to use Shanghai Metro – Click here.

Endowed with another elegant name – “Pearl town” Zhujiajiao water town transported us from living in the hustle bustle of a modern city to a whole new world filled with antiquity, peace and tranquillity.

This was a perfect place for me to capture people and moods (Something I love)-

Read more about the Top 5 must see attraction in Shanghai – Click here.

If you have any questions around this please feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you at the very earliest.