A journey across the river, back in time

Wuzhen is less than 100 kilometers but more than 1,300 years from Shanghai. Located south of the Yangtze River, Wuzhen has kept its traditions, charm, history and culture, successfully spanning – like the town’s 72 bridges – past and present, ancient and modern.

Wuzhen is fast gaining popularity among visitors to China, particularly from the Philippines, as it is a convenient land trip of less than two hours from Shanghai. Our group, organized by Panda Travel, landed at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport before 9 a.m. and got to Wuzhen in time for lunch, a sumptuous affair that featured local specialties like the cholesterol-laden but insanely delicious slab of braised pork and the difficult-to-pick-out-the-bones-but-worth-the-effort steamed white water fish.

Wuzhen is an ancient water town – comparison to Venice is inevitable – adjacent to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, said to be the longest (at over 1,700 kilometers) and oldest (started in the Spring and Autumn Period and extended during subsequent dynasties) canal in the world. With the grand canal serving as a major transport artery to foster trade between the north and south, settlements sprouted and prospered in the area as early as 7,000 years ago, although Wuzhen’s history as a water town dates back 1,300 years.

Houses in the ancient style made of brick and wood built along the rivers have part of the structure over the water supported by stone columns. Residents don’t go to market to buy food; the market comes to them in the form of boats laden with produce. The river serves as a refrigerator for fresh food, even today – we saw baskets containing live fish submerged in the river, waiting for their turn in the wok!

Wuzhen is divided into Dong Zha and Xi Zha, eastern and western sections. Wuzhen East, which has one waterway about 400 meters long sandwiched between two streets with original Qing dynasty houses, was opened to the public in 2001. Most of the town’s 12,000 permanent residents live in the eastern section, while the western section has been fully restored (at a cost of RMB2.4 billion) and is the primary tourist area, opened in 2007. The town’s restoration has become a model for similar heritage projects, since the ancient environment is not violated by overhead wires and cables – although the houses and hotels have electricity, television and Internet access – and the façades of the old structures remain intact, with the modern additions built discreetly behind the old walls.   

Visitors to Wuzhen West take a short boat ride across a man-made lake. From there, the town is theirs to explore, and the best way is to wander around and “get lost” among the shops and tea houses (there are over a hundred all over town), restaurants and little courtyards, peeking into windows, lingering among quaint crafts, or stopping for a taste of the famous gusao (sister-in-law) pastry and a cup of chrysanthemum tea, a local specialty.

Most of the hotels, restaurants and shops are on the banks of the main Xishi River, although tributaries on both sides of the river offer interesting finds as well. Visitors will find a map available at the tourist information office (in the big building behind the arch when you get off the bus) most helpful, as it has detailed information on what is where. 

Wuzhen has more than 20 traditional workshops, from silk to soy sauce. Discover how the famous 55 percent sanbai (literally, three whites, as it is brewed from white rice, white flour and white water) wine is made, or fit yourself out in a jacket made of the distinct blue-dyed indigo cloth.

As with any visit to any place in China, food figures prominently, and Wuzhen is no exception. There are teas that are special to this area, like the “water in pastry” tea concentrate, or the green string tea or, a personal favorite, the yellow-white chrysanthemum tea (rather than blooms, here you get buds no larger than a pea, which give a distinct yet subtle flavor that lingers). The rivers yield delicious seafood, but I must again make a pitch for that braised pork. I am told – unfortunately we did not get to experience this – there is a tradition of a long street banquet in Wuzhen, something like a boodle fight, with square wooden tables laid out in a row and people sit on stools on both sides and dig in!

By day Wuzhen is quaint and charming; by night it turns magical, when the houses and bridges are lighted, the myriad lanterns reflecting on the water. A ride on a single-oar wooden boat (six passengers max) down the Xishi River is a must; unfortunately the standard tourist boat ride is all too short. After the boat ride wander around town some more, as it is a different experience in the evening.

For one thing, the bars and karaoke places are alive but thankfully not too noisy, and the teahouses too are bustling. If not for the biting cold we would have stopped for tea and dumplings at one of the riverside veranda eateries. But we tropical creatures had to be content with some pastries and candy that we brought back to our hotel and ate in-room with chrysanthemum tea.

The old world exteriors of all the structures in Wuzhen West belie modern facilities in the numerous hotels, resorts and inns. Your bed may be a traditional four-poster with red and gold brocade, but you’ll have all the amenities of a 21st century five-star hotel, including Internet access and cable television, albeit with limited international channel selection but enough Chinese channels to keep you surfing all night.

Dawn showed us another face of Wuzhen, one shrouded in mist, other-worldly almost, until we heard domestic chatter among the houses as we boarded the wooden boat that took us to our bus, and back to the world of freeways and high-rise buildings that the rest of China is all about.

For more information on tours to Wuzhen and other places in China, visit www.chinapanorama.com. or www.pandatour.com.