Jiangsu · The Canal Town Tourism Found First
Zhouzhuang (周庄)
An oil painting sold in New York in 1984 made this the first Chinese canal town anyone went to look at. Four decades later it is still the busiest, and that is the thing to decide about before you come.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | A canal town of the lower Yangtze delta, houses built directly onto the water, crossed by stone bridges |
|---|---|
| Where | Kunshan, between Suzhou and Shanghai. About an hour from either |
| Why it was first | Chen Yifei painted its Twin Bridges in 1984. The painting was exhibited in New York, bought by Armand Hammer and presented to Deng Xiaoping, and the town became a destination almost immediately |
| How old | The settlement goes back around nine centuries; most of the standing houses are Ming and Qing |
| Booking | Ticketed at the gate. Boat rides are extra and priced per boat, not per person |
| Time needed | Half a day. A night here changes it completely |
| Terrain | Flat, stone-paved, with bridge steps. Wheeled luggage is a struggle |
| Language | Some English signage. Menus and boatmen mostly Chinese |
Why Go
A Painting, and What Followed It
1. The 1984 painting
Chen Yifei painted the Twin Bridges here in 1984: two stone bridges meeting at right angles, one arched and one flat, with the houses reflected in still water. The canvas was shown in New York, bought by the industrialist Armand Hammer, and given by him to Deng Xiaoping on a visit that year.
The effect was immediate and disproportionate. A working delta town with no particular national profile became the image of the Chinese water town, and the tourist development of the whole genre started here. Every other canal town on the delta, including the three in this page’s nearby list, was opened afterwards and with this one as the template.
2. What is actually here
The fabric is the real thing: Ming and Qing houses built with their foundations in the water, stone steps down to it from private doorways, arched bridges at the junctions, and lanes a shoulder-width wide behind the frontages. Boats are poled rather than driven and the boatmen sing, which is charged for and is also genuinely how the boats worked.
Cormorant fishing survives as a demonstration on the canals. The birds are real and the technique is real; the fishing is not, since the canal is not fished commercially any more. It is worth ten minutes on those terms.
The catch. This is the most visited canal town on the delta and it feels like it. In daylight the main lanes move at shuffling pace and the canals carry a queue of boats. The town empties in the evening when the day coaches leave, and staying the night is the difference between a crowded shopping street and a quiet place with water in it.
Orientation
Day Trip or Overnight
The town is small enough to walk in an hour and the ticket covers a number of house museums scattered through it. The Twin Bridges, the Shen and Zhang residences and the main canal junctions are all within a few minutes of each other.
The real decision is timing rather than route. Day visitors arrive from ten and leave by five. Before and after that window the same lanes are a different place, which is why the guesthouses inside the town are worth the inconvenience of dragging a bag over bridges.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
Stay inside the gate
Guesthouses in the old town let you be out at seven in the morning and after nine at night, which is when it is worth being here.
Boats are priced per boat
Not per person. Two people pay what six would, so joining another group is normal and saves most of the cost.
Weekdays, not weekends
Shanghai and Suzhou are both an hour away and both empty into this town at weekends.
Pick one town, not four
The delta towns look similar in photographs and are different in use. This one is the busiest and the most developed; the others on this page are quieter in different ways.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| March to May | Willows out, mild, and the canals at their best before the summer heat | Spring rain is frequent, and this town has little covered walkway |
| September to November | The most settled weather of the year and comfortable walking | The first week of October is the national holiday and the town is impassable |
| June to August | Long evenings, which is when the town is worth being in | Hot, humid, and the daytime crowds are at their peak |
| December to February | Quiet, misty mornings on the water, and the fabric visible without the crowd | Cold and damp. Old houses here are not heated |
Context
Why the Delta Is Built on Water
The lower Yangtze delta is flat, wet and criss-crossed by natural and cut channels. Before roads, water was the transport system, and settlements were laid out along it in the only sensible way: houses fronting the canal with steps down to it, warehouses at the back, bridges at the junctions, and a lane running behind for what could not go by boat.
The region was also, from the Ming onward, among the wealthiest in the empire, on rice, silk and the examination system. The towns were prosperous, and the merchant and official families in them built the courtyard houses that visitors now pay to walk through.
What ended the pattern was roads and then industry. By the 1980s these towns were poor backwaters that had not been rebuilt, which is exactly why they survived. Their poverty in the twentieth century is the reason there is anything to see in the twenty-first, and that is true of almost every preserved old town in China.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Spot · 20 km
Tongli (同里)
Quieter, with a UNESCO-listed garden built by a dismissed official who named it after reflecting on his own faults.
Spot · 40 km
Xitang (西塘)
Distinguished by about a kilometre of covered waterfront walkway, so it works in rain, and it is alive at night.
Spot · 70 km
Nanxun (南浔)
The rich one. Silk merchants built mansions here with European wings, and the money is visible in the buildings.
Where to Base
Suzhou (苏州)
Zhouzhuang is administratively in Kunshan, between Suzhou and Shanghai, and reachable from either in about an hour. Suzhou is the better base if the canal towns and the classical gardens are the point of the trip.
Doing one town properly beats doing three quickly. They photograph alike and they are used differently, and three in a day leaves an impression of one long shopping street.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On the water · 30 min
A poled boat through the canals
Under the bridges and along the house frontages at water level, which is the level the town was designed to be seen from.
Early or late · 1 hr
The lanes outside visiting hours
Before the coaches and after they leave, the same streets are empty and the water is still.
Guided · full day
Two towns, contrasted
This one and one of the quieter three, with someone who can explain why they developed differently.
Worth a night rather than a day. Come for the fabric and the boats, stay inside the gate so you get the early morning and the evening, and go on a weekday. If crowds are what you most want to avoid, one of the other three towns on this page will suit you better and you will not be missing much.
Plan a Canal Town Route That Is Not All the Same Town
Tell us your dates and what you are after, and our local team will build the route: one canal town done properly with a night in it, chosen to match what you actually want, plus Suzhou’s gardens on either side of it.