Anchang Ancient Town

A Historic Canal Town Outside Shaoxing, Known For Its Winter Curing Trade And For The Shaoxing Shiye Tradition Of Private Secretaries To Qing Magistrates · Shaoxing, Zhejiang

A single street of a canal town running about a kilometre along one waterway outside Shaoxing, with stone arch bridges, covered walkways over the water and black-awninged boats - and the reason to come is not the architecture but December. Anchang cures things. From late in the year the whole street hangs with sausages, cured pork, pressed duck and split fish drying on bamboo poles over the canal and under the eaves, in quantities that turn the town into something between a market and an installation, and Shaoxing families come out to buy the year's supply. It is a working food town rather than a preserved one, and that is what separates it from Wuzhen and Xitang an hour away, which are beautiful and have been converted almost entirely into accommodation and shops. Anchang also produced a particular local profession - the shiye, the private secretaries and legal advisers who staffed Qing magistrates' offices across the empire came disproportionately from Shaoxing, and there is a small museum here about them.

Anchang Ancient Town, Keqiao District, Shaoxing, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China

The street is a working town and is effectively open at all hours and free to walk; the museums and interpretive buildings keep ticketed hours, generally 8:30-17:00. THE CURING SEASON IS DECEMBER AND JANUARY and is the reason to come - there is usually a sausage festival around the New Year. Outside that season the drying racks are empty. Canal boats run in daylight and are weather-dependent.

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