Zhouzhuang Water Town: An Accidental Visit

Oh, I hate these Zhouzhuang traffic jams.

The area around Shanghai and Suzhou, China is famous for its water towns. There are at least eight different villages within a few hours of the cities, each with its own special character. These villages are perhaps the best way to get a glimpse of the old way of life in central China.

When my mom visited me last November, we decided to go to Tongli, one of the quieter towns. There was only one problem: after riding the subway to the outskirts of Shanghai and then taking several more buses, we ended up in the wrong Tongli! This version of Tongli had some farm fields and animals, but a “Venice of the East” it was certainly not. We walked until the road ended at a river, took a ferry across, and continued walking toward Shanghai. Just when we were cursing our bad luck, a girl offered us a ride back to the subway. She wasn't sure where there was a water town called Tongli, but she did know how to get to Zhouzhuang. She dropped us off and wished us better luck.

Zhouzhuang (周庄) is meant to be the most touristy and overcrowded water town of them all. But it was too late to start over in our search for Tongli, so we decided to just go for it. As it turned out, Zhouzhuang wasn't so bad. It did have a lot of “Ye Olde” shops set up for tourism, but a few people actually lived there. Some of them didn't even try to sell us stuff. We just had to walk away from the main streets to get a more authentic experience.

Here are some of my photos from the village. It's not Venice, but at least it was easy to get to. And sometimes in China, accessibility trumps authenticity.