Wuzhen Ancient Water Town

Posted in Travel

A marvelous place about 1.5hours northeast of Hangzhou

There are several “Water Towns” around the area of Shanghai / Hangzhou. Wuzhen Water town is supposed to be one of the oldest. There is a East (东) and West (西) part, we only went to the west part, the east part is much smaller.

You can go by bus from Hangzhou main station, which is about 35 RMB per person one way. Since we did not have too much time, we took a taxi/DiDi. We heard you can also take the bullet train from Hangzhou to Shanghai and be there from Hangzhou in about 45 minutes. However, booking a train ticket in China is not too easy, especially if your chinese language skills are not very good.

The entrance fee for the scenic area was 150 RMB per person for the West Scenic area, i suppose it is another 100 RMB for the east area.

Wuzhen in relation to Shanghai and Hangzhou
East and West part of the scenic area

See some more impressions below, of narrow streets, nice plazas and even wide fields around the water town with nice yellow blossoms.

Those channels go through all the town. The water is so green, it almost looks unnatural.
You can taste the famous local Longjing tea, which is only grown in the area around Hangzhou. It is really expensive, so a serving for 2 people cost 128 RMB (it was the cheapest type of the tea, for tea, there is really no price limit in China)
The pagoda was the main sight at the far end of the park.
Those jars contain soybean paste, which is covered by a silk sheet and a bamboo “hat”. The silk sheet protects the paste from insects, the “hat” protects it from rain. It ferments in those jars and is later the main ingredient for soy sauce.

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