Zhujiajiao Water Town

Ming And Qing Canal Town In The Shanghai Suburbs, The Closest Water Town To The City · Shanghai, Shanghai

The closest canal town to Shanghai, an hour out on the metro, and the easiest place to see what the Yangtze delta looked like before the city grew. Zhujiajiao was a market town by the Ming dynasty, trading rice, cloth and oil along the waterways that linked the delta, and its old quarter keeps nine long streets of whitewashed shophouses along thirty-six stone bridges. The finest is the Fangsheng Bridge of 1571, a five-arch span where people buy fish to release into the canal for merit, and the busiest is North Street, a lane so narrow the eaves nearly meet overhead. Behind the waterfront are the Kezhi Garden, a merchant's garden of pavilions and a western-style tower, the Yuanjin Buddhist temple, a Qing post office and a small museum of rice culture. Boats poled by boatwomen carry visitors along the canals, and the town is at its best early, before the Shanghai day-trippers arrive, or in the evening once they have gone. The town itself is free to enter, with tickets only for the individual houses and gardens.

Zhujiajiao Ancient Town, Qingpu District, Shanghai, Shanghai, China

Town lanes open at all hours and free; ticketed houses and gardens about 8:30-16:30, with the ticket window closing about 15:00 (check).

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