Winter Travel Experience – WuZhen China

We reached Shanghai on the first day, visited HangZhou on the second and third day. This was the fourth day of our travel to south of Yangtze River, China. We were going to leave HangZhou this morning for another city of heaven, SuZhou. Before that, we were going to drop by a 2000-year-old water town, WuZhen. In China, travel destinations of visitors’ favorite are mostly historic architecture, mountain, lakes, rivers, private garden and water town. So we’ve visited great architecture of Oriental Pearl tower in Shanghai, West Lake, to visit Lion scenic garden later in SuZhou and now WuZhen, the water town.

Before that, after my breakfast again in the hotel, once again and for all, I couldn’t resist but…. took another few photos on bicycle rush! 🙂 If you could notice, the photo appeared to be more vibrantly coloured as our beloved sunshine came back finally, 3 days after we were in China.

We left HangZhou at 9 a.m. and reached WuZhen one and a half hour later. With help of some sunshine, I managed to snap some photos of those beautiful farmers’ bungalow houses along the way.

Wuzhen (乌镇) is a newly authorised ancient town of history and culture in  northern Zhejiang Province, China. It lies between Hangzhou and Suzhou. In Chinese language, ‘Wu Zhen’ means small town in black!

Wuzhen has an unique and long town layout, being 2 kilometers long, it is divided into 6 districts of traditional workshops, traditional dwelling houses, culture, food and beverage, shops and stores, water township customs and life.

It is believed that WuZhen was originally the settlement of a troop of armies in ancient China. In order to be distinguished from the others, the general ordered his troop to stain all their houses in dark brown!

This is the beginning and end of the village where tourist boats made their u-turn here. Under good sunlight, reflection of house shadows on the river made the village a perfect scenic destination…

Can you still see people at your area washing vegetables at river side like the lady above?

This is the landmark of WuZhen…. don’t ask me what is it for… 🙁

We walked around the village through the narrow stone path laid more than 2000 years ago! Houses as expected are mainly sinlge and double storey wooden structures.

A beautiful carved timber door which could be found everywhere in WuZhen and even SuZhou. Can you see the shape of the door knob cum door bell? It is the shape of a bat! In Chinese language, the word ‘bat’ is pronounced as Fù, which is the same as ‘Good fortune’… 🙂

In ancient China, rich people sleep in the suite like the one above, where there are 4 compartments: from outside in, first is where heater is placed, 2nd is where they put their ‘water closet’; 3rd is where they hang their cloths and finally their bed… 🙂

Ancient liquor shop is still selling spirits from local brewer, best bottled in clay jug, which are widely seen in chinese kung fu movies like ‘Drunken Master’…

There was a stall selling all kind of cigarettes, mainly local products. I was surprised with the price range,from as least as RMB2 to as expensive as RMB35!

In the Traditional Workshop district, we visited the local dye house as well as souvenir cloth toy shop.

Or if you are curious of how cotton is transformed to cloth with this traditional weaving machine….

Or you could witness the ancient chinese craftmenship at this wooden pail workshop.

This side lane lead us to the riverside. It reminded me of the similar scene in Venice. No wonder WuZhen is sometimes described as ‘The Eastern Venice’…. 🙂

The main river of WuZhen. This photo was shot from the bridge crossing between both sides of the village.

Tourist boats were available for travelers who wish to cruise along the river. I think it is not a ‘must try’ activity in WuZhen. I would rather walk around by my feet.

Walking along the riverside footpath, you could still be able to admire the man-made beauty of the water village.

I was curious of the lifestyle of local people in WuZhen. How is the sanitary and sewerage system in the village? How could they maintain the cleaniness of the river with these balcony where they cook, wash and hang their cloths at the same place?

‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’… highlight and shadows demonstration of my Panasonic…. 🙂

River boats were parked at the bay, for rental…

A trademark scene of water villages in China, or even the world: Riverside residential houses, stone bridge crossing, greeneries at bay and off course, the river or the waterway…

On our exit, there were retail shops at both sides, selling snacks and souvenirs. We started to realise that there were going to be plenty of chances for us to buy souvenirs and local foods.

RMB10 for 3 items! You could imagine how cheap are their souvenirs!

This ended our walk around trip to WuZhen, the water village of HangZhou. We went for our lunch then after, before we moved on to our next destination city, the city of heaven, SuZhou. If you prefer to receive updated stories of my Shanghai travel, you would subscribe to our RSS Feeds. – Travel Feeder.