Water Taxi’s of Zhouzhuang

About an hour and a half bus ride from Shanghai is Zhouzhuang, known for their water canals its a quaint town with a long history of around 1,000 years.

Boats lined up and ready

In its heyday Zhouzhuang was a trading center for silk, food and many handicrafts. Nowadays it relies on tourism and is one of the top ten visited destinations in China.

Our boat driver

We decided to take a boat thru that canals and was relatively quiet due to our early arrival.

Early morning the area is serene and most likely how it used to be many years ago.

Flowers on a balcony

Taxis

We started to see more taxis as our boat ride was coming to an end.

You do not need to take one of the water taxis to get great photos. There are more than a dozen stone bridges that cross the canals and make for great photos.

Lady rinsing her mop

Waiting for their next sweep.

Wandering the streets and alleys takes you back into a different era. The views and occasional smells make you think of how it used to be.

Brick houses lining the canals

Narrow Alley

There are places to have a bit to eat, trinkets for sale and a few tea houses overlooking the canals.

Trinkets

Dingsheng Cake

We had to try the Dingsheng cake, made from flour, fruit jam and sweet red bean paste. We bought them and wanted to find a tea house nearby but unfortunately the Dingsheng cake did not make it that far.

Terra cotta pots filled with something

We ran across these stacks of Terra cotta pots storing something? Whiskey or maybe some sort of pickeled vegetables.

If your visiting Shanghai and Hangzhou it is well worth a quick day trip to Zhouzhuang, you will not be dissapointed