Xitang · Zhejiang
Xitang is the least commercialised of the great Zhejiang water towns — nine canals, 122 stone lanes, a roofed riverside street and a night that ends with floating lanterns.
The short version
The place itself
Xitang has the shape of a water town and the pace of a village. Nine rivers cross in the town and cut it into eight pieces, stitched back together by bridges; the locals have a name for it — nine dragons cradling a pearl, eight directions of wind. Where most canal towns are now run as attractions, Xitang is still lived in: people get up at dawn and shut the door at dusk, and the shops serve neighbours as much as visitors.
Three things define it. Bridges, and there are many — plain beam, arch and zigzag, all within sight of one another. Lanes, 122 of them, some no wider than a single person. And corridors — the long roofed riverside walk known as the Mist and Rain Long Gallery, built piecemeal by the houses yet rising to the same height line, so that it hides neither wealth nor poverty. Rain is when it makes sense: you walk dry beneath the eaves and watch the water come off the roof.
What people come for here is not a checklist but a state of mind. The guide you will read before you go says it plainly: come to Xitang and behave like a person who lives here — eat a bowl of small wontons at the roadside in the morning, lie on a riverside lounger all afternoon, lose an hour in a teahouse, and stay up for the bars on Tangdong Street at night.
It is also easy to reach, which makes it an easy first water town: about 1.5 hours by coach from Shanghai, 2 from Hangzhou, and an hour from Suzhou. Wuzhen is 45 minutes away by road if you want to pair the two, but the two do different jobs — Wuzhen for polish and a show, Xitang for an ordinary morning.
Pins are plotted from real latitude and longitude on a 5° graticule. This is a schematic orientation diagram, not a political map — no boundaries are drawn.
Xitang's signature: a long roofed riverside street, in fact a covered walkway built house by house but rising to a single height line, brick and timber underfoot and overhead. It shades you in the sun and keeps you dry in the rain, and in the rain it is the single best place in the town to be.
Yongning bridge has no view of itself but the best view of the town, which is why every photographer stops there. Songzi Laifeng bridge, built 1637 and rebuilt in 1997 as a double gallery, is where couples walk — men left, women right, for a son. Wolong bridge is the tallest, a single stone arch raised in 1716; Anjing bridge is the centre of the old town's traffic and the bridge Tom Cruise ran across in Mission: Impossible III.
The lanes are Xitang's other structure, fire-breaks as much as shortcuts. The most famous is the Stone-Skin Lane, named for flagstones thin as skin, 0.8 m wide at its narrowest between walls 6 to 10 m high — the classic cut of sky. Come after rain, when the stones are wet and slick underfoot.
The Zhangfu Hall is a Qing merchant's mansion named for the belief that you reap what you sow. The Ni House, five courtyards deep off the Shaoxianggang canal, was the home of the modern official Ni Tianzeng. The Zui Garden, a scholar's garden with three claims to its name, holds a small print collection — Xitang through the eyes of its own artists.
Xitang is a button town, and its Button Museum shows the making of a shell button through more than a dozen steps, sometimes with the craftsman working at the bench downstairs. The Zhang Zheng Root-Carving Museum holds more than a hundred pieces, and the Memorial Temple to the Grain Escort King remembers a Ming official who gave away grain in a famine and was executed for it.
After dark the painted boats go out, the covered corridor fills with red lanterns, and people set lotus lanterns on the water — ¥1 to ¥8 each, sold by almost every house after dusk, and fireworks at ¥2 a box. The night boat and the lit corridor together are the reason to sleep here rather than day-trip.
There is no station or airport in Xitang, but it is an easy coach ride from three directions. From Shanghai, direct coaches leave the South and General bus stations about every 40 minutes to 2 hours from 07:10 to 18:30, ¥32, about 1.5 hours; the tourist coach from the Shanghai tourist centre leaves at 09:15 and returns at 16:30 for ¥140 with a guide. From Hangzhou, Jiubao coach centre runs about ten a day for ¥37 in about 2 hours. From Suzhou, coaches run from the South station (07:10–17:25) and the North Square station (06:15–17:00), ¥37. By rail, come to Jiashan or Jiashan South (high-speed), then bus K215 or K216 from the coach centre (about 40 minutes, 06:00–17:50) or K210 from Jiashan station (about 30 minutes, 06:00–17:30); Jiaxing North coach station also runs K152 direct (about 50 minutes, ¥7). Fly into Shanghai Hongqiao if you can — it is the closest airport — then coach in from the South or General station.
Inside, you walk. The old town is small and the sights sit along the two riverbanks, so following the water gets you everywhere. Boats are the only alternative and they are hired from the pier at the Songzi Laifeng bridge: ¥150 a boat by day (ten people) with a ticket, and after dark a single seat is ¥20 with a ticket or ¥30 on Sunday–Thursday and ¥40 on Friday, Saturday and holidays without one; a whole boat is ¥150 with a ticket and ¥200–280 without. Hiring a boatman to scull you costs about ¥80 an hour, and a pedicab guide — driver and guide in one, who knows the private sights — runs about ¥15 for a circuit.
| Month | Weather | Crowds | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 12°C / 4°C · cool, damp | Quiet | Good |
| February | 14°C / 6°C · cool, damp | Very busy | Good |
| March | 18°C / 10°C · clear and mild | Moderate | Best |
| April | 24°C / 16°C · clear and mild | Moderate | Best |
| May | 28°C / 21°C · cool, damp | Busy | OK |
| June | 32°C / 25°C · very hot, humid | Moderate | OK |
| July | 35°C / 28°C · cool, damp | Busy | Avoid |
| August | 34°C / 27°C · cool, damp | Busy | Avoid |
| September | 29°C / 23°C · very hot, humid | Moderate | OK |
| October | 24°C / 17°C · clear and mild | Very busy | Best |
| November | 18°C / 11°C · clear and mild | Quiet | Best |
| December | 13°C / 6°C · cool, damp | Quiet | Good |
Two days and one night is the honest trip, and this is the one water town where three days is not too many. Day one is the old town: the root-carving and button museums, the Anjing bridge, the Ni House and the Sheng Tang temple, the Mist and Rain Long Gallery for lunch and a slow afternoon, then the bars of Tangdong Street at night. Day two is the early morning — the town at its most itself — the Yongning bridge for the view, the Songzi Laifeng bridge for a boat, and the Zui Garden and the Grain Escort King temple after. One day works if you arrive at dawn and leave at dusk; three buys a genuinely unhurried stay and a half-day trip to Jiaxing's South Lake.
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April is the best single month — the azaleas are out, the temperature and humidity are kind, and it is the classic season for walking by the water. Beyond that, Xitang is genuinely a four-season town: spring flowers, autumn mist, the June crab in summer, and the Spring Festival atmosphere in winter. Rain is not a reason to stay away — locals will tell you the misty-rain look is the whole point, and the covered corridor keeps you dry while you enjoy it.
For the old town alone, the entrance pass is ¥50 and there is no way to dodge it into the sights — the small sights check, and there are no separate small tickets any more, only the ¥100 combined ticket. In the past you could slip in through a side lane in the evening; the guards have tightened, and if you want to take a boat you will need the ticket anyway. If you only want the town itself and no museums, the ¥50 pass is enough.
It is the least developed and the most lived-in. Wuzhen and Zhouzhuang now run as pure attractions and are more heavily commercialised; Xitang kept far more of its residential life, and many residents still keep the old rhythm of working at dawn and resting at dusk. The result is a quieter, more ordinary town — which is exactly what people who prefer it come for. Prices are also lower, and the local specialities are cheaper bought at the town supermarkets outside the scenic area.
By coach, and there are three ways. From the Shanghai South bus station, direct coaches run about every 40 minutes to an hour from 07:10 to 17:54 for ¥32, taking about 1.5 hours; the General bus station runs from 07:20 to 18:30 for ¥32; and the tourist centre's coach leaves at 09:15 and returns at 16:30 for ¥140 with a guide. For the return, the easiest is a train from Jiashan South high-speed station, which has more services — book ahead on holidays.
The street food, mostly. Stinky tofu from Guan Laotai — ¥5 for eight pieces, crisp outside and soft within, with house sweet and chilli sauces; only shops carrying the registered 'Guan Laotai' mark are genuine, and the official shop is at 92 Shiban Road. Then a bowl of small wontons (Lu's Xian De Lai is the busy one), a lotus-leaf steamed pork for ¥5, water chestnut cake, malt sugar on a stick, osmanthus fermented-rice wine, and steamed white-thread fish from Fen Lake.
More than in most water towns. The night boat runs on the water, the covered corridor is lit with red lanterns, and lotus river lanterns cost ¥1 to ¥8 — buy several small ones and link them into a flower shape. Tangdong Street is the bar street, one bar after another with a guitar and a keyboard each, and on holidays and festival weeks the water stage stages Yue opera and the local field songs. There is also a slow-mail service for posting postcards to your future self.
Yes — more than most, because the town is at its best in the two hours that day-trippers cannot reach. The guesthouses are cheap (beds from ¥45, riverside doubles usually ¥100–160) and many offer to walk you into the scenic area through a side lane. Come in the evening, watch the lanterns go on, sleep by the water, and be up for the misty morning, when the town is at its most itself.
Boats are hired from the pier at the Songzi Laifeng bridge and are managed by the scenic area, so you buy the ticket with your entrance ticket. By day a boat is ¥150 for up to ten people with a ticket. After dark, a single seat is ¥20 with a ticket and ¥30 without on Sunday to Thursday, or ¥40 without on Friday, Saturday and holidays; a whole night boat is ¥150 with a ticket. Hiring a boatman to scull costs about ¥80 an hour.
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