Unique Day Trip to the Water Town Zhujiajiao from Shanghai

If you have a few days to explore Shanghai and the surrounding areas, you may decide to visit a water town. These towns sit on all kinds of canals making it possible to get around by boat or walking. While there are quite a few choices within a couple of hours of Shanghai, the water town Zhujiajiao is only about 45 minutes away by bus and is known as the Venice of Shanghai.

Getting from Shanghai to Zhujiajiao by Bus

The bus station to get to Zhujiajiao from Shanghai is located right next to the Concert Hall by the People’s Park. None of the bus information is available in English so make sure to take the name written in Chinese characters. This way you can match them up and verify with either the driver or other passengers. Just get on the bus and after it gets moving they will walk around and ticket people. A one way ticket is ¥12 and they were able to provide change. Buses run every half hour or so.

Arriving in Zhujiajiao and Finding Your Way into Town

Upon arrival, you’re at a bus station, with no map or tourist information available. You’ll likely be swarmed by taxi drivers, pedicabs, and even motorbikes wanting to give you a ride into town for ¥20 – 30. Of course, it is walkable so just walk out from the bus station, turn left then eventually turn right into town.

From there you can go to the tourist information center to get a map. Unfortunately, they may only give you a map if you purchase a ticket to some of the towns attractions. I ended up purchasing the ¥30 one mainly because I needed the map more than my desire to go to the gardens, post office, pharmacy, and museum which were included.  As I exited ticket and map in hand, I noticed a giant map on the side billboard which would have sufficed – oh well!  There was also a little boy trying to sell me on having him be my tour guide, which of course I did not need. A couple of minutes later and you’re at the main bridge in the town.

I crossed over the bridge and started navigating my way down the side canal.  Everything was so quaint!  All along the canal there were bridges and little shops and restaurants.  There’s of course the option to see the town by boat too as all of the canals enable boat traffic.after walking a bit I came to the Kezhi Garden one of the items on my ticket so I chose to go in.  It’s a beautiful little garden but by no means one of the better ones in China as it is slightly unkept.  

From there I continued down to the end of this cabal before turning around and walking back to the main bridge to return to the other side.  This side, the one with the bus station, features two main streets to explore including of course canals and more shops and restaurants.  

It was back there where I found the post office and pharmacy which are really only “tour” stops by default and in my opinion not worth going in.  This might all sound negative, but the town itself is very charming and strolling through the narrow alleys and along the canals is really what makes it special.  So would I recommend it if you have a spare day, sure.  Honestly, it really could be done in half of a day.

In any case, I returned to the bus station and matched up my Chinese characters to ensure I was headed the right way, double checking with other passengers that it was going to Shanghai, and we were off.  

Upon arrival it was raining, so I headed to check out one of the counterfeit markets out of curiosity.  As you approach you can see foreigners carrying plain black bags stuffed full of things.  Inside you can find just about anything from fake Go Pros to knockoff designer bags to winter coats.  It’s a big business!

It’s also fascinating to watch the shippers bargaining with the owners and employees of the shops who are of course professions at it.  As I had read, no need to feel bad about a price because if they accept it, it must be good for them too. So have at it!  After wandering a few floors which all offer the same goods store after store I emerged, and it had stopped raining so I made my way back.

At the hostel I met back up with some of the people I’d hung out with the past few days and decided to wait to have dinner with them before my late night flight.  Unfortunately somehow dinner became a late night dinner and timing became a serious crunch, but that’s for another post!