Zhouzhuang Water Town Tour from Shanghai
Your guide will pick you up at your hotel in Shanghai and transfer you to Zhouzhuang, a town surrounded by water with many branching streams, stone bridges, and old residences with black tiles and white wells. walk along the best tour route to visit Shen House, Zhang House, and the ancient town, which has a history of more than 900 years old with many houses built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Take a sculling boat ride before driving back to Shanghai in the late afternoon.
Price based on 2 travelers
Highlights
- Visit a water town that is now a candidate to become a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- Ponder the lifestyle and incredible wealth of a successful ancient merchant.
- Enjoy a local Kun Opera performed on an ancient stage.
- Take a sculling boat ride and admire Zhouzhuang from a different perspective.
Tour Itinerary
Zhouzhuang is the most popular water town, due to its rich culture and unrivaled water town views. Your culture-savvy tour guide will give you a brief introduction to Zhouzhuang during the drive from Shanghai to the town.
Let's start today's tour with Zhouzhuang Museum, the best place for forming first impressions of the town. When it was built in 1912, the building now housing the museum was the private residence of a rich man, whose family name was Zhu.
The decorations and furniture in the museum reflect Zhu's ideology and background. He abandoned his residence during wartime, but fortunately, it did not suffer total destruction. Now, besides the interior decoration and furniture, some precious photos, paintings, and old agricultural tools are also part of the museum collection.
The Mi Pavilion was the favorite place for local poets and writers to share their views of literature and life. You may yourself want to compose a poem on seeing the postcard-worthy water town view from the pavilion.
Zhouzhuang Watertown
You can soak up the atmosphere of Zhouzhuang during the 1920s by walking past the tea houses, craft shops, iron shops, traditional Chinese medicine stores, and weavers’ houses on Zhenfeng Street.
Zhenfeng Cultural Street
After a short walk on Zhenfeng Street, you may feel a bit hungry. Your tour guide will help you find a local restaurant where you can try out the most authentic local food.
Local Food
The Shide and Yongan Bridges are connected by a short stone path, so local people call them the Twin Bridges. They look like two ancient keys and local people believe they are the keys to success, praying for success as they walk by.
The Twin Houses belonged to Zhang and Shen, who were two rich merchants whose luxury lives in the past are now reflected by the decorations and antiques in their two homes.
The Twin Bridges
Shen Wansan (1330–1376 AD) was the richest merchant in China during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD). It is said his fortune at the time would have been equivalent to 2,000 billion US dollars nowadays.
The statues and paintings in Shen's former residence tell you the story of his personal life and business. He donated enormous sums of money to government in order to build the Great Wall, which has become the most renowned tourist attraction in China today.
You will take a boat along the canal via which Shen Wansan entered and left Zhouzhuang, as far as the exit of the Zhouzhuang Water Town area.
After the tour, you will be transferred back to your hotel in Shanghai.
Former Residence of Shen Wansan
Price Per Person in US Dollars
What's Included
- Entrance fees.
- Meals are listed in the itinerary.
- Private transfers.
- Private English-speaking guide and driver.
- Service Charge & Taxes.
Important Info
- Operates: daily
- Departure point: Hotels in Shanghai
- Return details: returns to the original departure point
- Languages: English|German |French|Spanish|Russian|Italian (The price is based on an English-speaking guide. Extra fees apply if you need a guide with another language)
- The price of this tour will rise during the China National Day holiday (September 30th to October 7th) and the Chinese New Year holiday.
Good to Know
- This is a private tour. The local private English-speaking guide and the private car will serve your group only.
- You will receive a confirmation letter within 24 hours of making your payment.
- Your guide will contact you in the evening (Your guide will call you at around 18:00. If you missed your guide’s phone call, he or she will send you a short message) before your tour and confirm the exact pick-up time according to your preference.
- Your guide will pick you up in your hotel lobby on the tour date at the appointed time.
- The meal (if included) is in a Chinese restaurant and your guide will help you order the dishes according to your taste.
- There is absolutely no forced shopping.
- An extra fee applies if you need to be picked up or dropped off from/to airports or cruise terminals.