Day Trip to Zhou Zhuang 周庄

It has been a 2 weeks passed since we (together with Ethan) first arrived in Shanghai for our 1 year or so relocation. Tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival and thus Monday is a replacement holiday in China. This is our first outing to a tourist spot out of Shanghai. Zhou Zhuang 周庄 is one of China's most famous water town in JiangSu Province about 1 hour drive from Shanghai. It was originally built in 1086. The town has a well preserved ancient residential houses of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the elegant watery views and the strong local colored traditions and customs. It has been called the "Venice of the East". More information can be obtained from this Chinese website.

http://www.zhouzhuang.net/index1.asp

Actually this place was recommended my our family driver when I asked him where to go for a short day trip. Since we just arrived we did not want to be too ambitious and go far away places. Mainly caused by the fact that our 2.5 years old son would not be able to withstand such a long trip.

With luck our kid woke up quite early at 7.30am in the morning. Might be he has sixth sense that we were going out "Kai Kai" somewhere? Driver arrived at our door step at 8.30am and we loaded up our kid's thing mainly and started out at 8.40am.

We swung by Soon-san's apartment and picked them up before heading for the highway leading to Zhou Zhuang. The highway was congested even on Saturday morning because of 2 road accidents on the way. When we arrived at Zhou Zhuang it was already 11.00am.

The entrance fee was extremely expensive with adult fare of RMB100 and children fare of RMB50. Ethan is free of course as usual.

Seems like this town is famous for it's pig feet delicacies. There are numerous shops along the street selling this item as shown in the photo captured below:

Along the way towards the main gate that enter the town there are shops selling various stuffs and food.

Took a chance to take family photo

More photos of the shops

The main gate to the town

More scenes of the town along the river


Various bridges along the river


Opera House


More scenes of the dock

It was quite a walk within the town. Although it was not warm that day but we were sweating. I couldn't imagine if we were to come here during the peak of the summer.
There is a lot of walking and for those who could not walk no more can take the boat. It cost RMB80 to rent a boat with maximum fit for 1 to 8 persons. The person rowing the boat would also sing some local songs as he/she rows the boat.

Singing river songs while rowing boat





A stroll along the river

Father and son photo

Empty back lanes are plenty. Some houses are occupied and most are not.

The people of this town uses the river for their daily living, like washing clothes, catching fish, prawns, etc. One can still see people washing their clothes by the river. We visited an exhibition place showing how in the olden days fishermen lived off this river.

Visited one of the house that is turned into a museum. This house gave me the impression like the Rumah Peranakan in Penang that I have visited before.

One thing to note is that although the entrance fee is extremely expensive RMB100, it does not cover quite a few attractions. Like one of them is this 怪楼. Entrance for this is another RMB20. Seems a bit cutthroat therefore we did not enter. My guess is that it should be something like a combination of Mystery Spot of Santa Cruz and ghost house. As I said it is just a guess. Will someone who has entered it please leave a comment?

Scene like this is quite common in this water town.

Boat passing through the bridge

Overall it was quite a good sightseeing experience being able to see the old water town. At least something drastically different from the city scenery of Shanghai. It was of course extremely tiring and lots of sweating. Good experience worth remembering though. I would have hope to visit it once more time, however the entrance fee of RMB100 would make me think twice.

Goodbye scene of the boat in the river.