{"id":30812,"date":"2019-11-11T07:57:35","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T23:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=30812"},"modified":"2026-03-14T19:27:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:27:19","slug":"5-days-in-shanghai-zhujiajiao-water-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2019\/11\/11\/5-days-in-shanghai-zhujiajiao-water-town\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Days in Shanghai – Zhujiajiao Water Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first in my series of posts commenting on selected aspects of a 5 day trip to Shanghai. Just to put things in context too: this was a work and not leisure trip, and the itinerary was planned and arranged by travel agents. The places were chosen to meet the work objectives, and the amount of time we spent in each spot was, for the most part, limited.<\/p>\n

So, that out of the way: one of the places we visited on Day 02 was the Zhujiajiao<\/strong> (\u6731\u5bb6\u89d2<\/span><\/span>) Water Town, a fairly large 47 sq km district that’s been said to be China’s equivalent of Venice. The ancient town, 1,700 years old, is a thriving business and tourist spot with numerous canals and old bridges that are still standing and working, connecting people across both sides of the canals. The town is about an hour’s drive out from Shanghai city itself but along good road networks. We spent the morning and had lunch in the town, though most of the time was spent on a Chinese calligraphy workshop that was organized for the students on the trip. So, in short, we barely had time to explore the town itself and just barely scratched the surface of it.<\/p>\n

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Approaching the outskirts of the town. It’s still quite uncrowded at this point, but once you get past the admission gantry, the crowds become apparent.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Technically, you can rent bicycles to cycle, but I imagine it won’t be easy if you’re more used to leisure cycling on uncrowded tracks. The pathways aren’t always even either.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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There are numerous shops where you can rent traditional costumes and have your hair done, and I spotted more than a few couples \u2014 including this middle-aged one \u2014 posing for pictures in traditional apparel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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You can rent boats for short trips along the canal waterways. I didn’t get to try this, but the rides from what I read cost 80 yuan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The water seemed reasonably clean along the stretches we walked, though given the high density of commerce and visitors in the town, I’m not sure the trash-free water is generally true.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Numerous shops offering Bakkwa-styled dried meats, including flavors that aren’t available in Singapore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The canal is wide in a few places; this picture \u2014 taken while I was walking over a stone bridge \u2014 gives a small sense of how big the town is.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Numerous shops selling all manner of snacks, produce, handicrafts, souvenirs and trinkets. Bargaining seems to be an accepted practice in this area, so don’t feel shy about testing your charisma levels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Some of the bridges are constructed from wood, but look entirely sturdy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One could easily spend at least half a day exploring the numerous streets and alleys. The town seems well-preserved and is certainly vibrant \u2014 though you need to be ready for tourist crowds, and that some shops might be pushing you to buy all manner of things that you really don’t need.<\/p>\n

Next post on The Bund @ evening<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first in my series of posts commenting on selected aspects of a 5 day trip to Shanghai. Just to put things in context too: this was a work and not leisure trip, and the itinerary was planned and arranged<\/p>\n

Read More 5 Days in Shanghai – Zhujiajiao Water Town<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[567,665,666],"class_list":["post-30812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-12-40mm","tag-olympus-e-pl9","tag-shanghai-2019","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/blog-2019-shangai-gs-day-02-OLYA0246-zhujiajiao-water-town.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38471,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30812\/revisions\/38471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}