from Shanghai to Zhujiajiao

In case you are wondering what the hell is that in the title, it is the name of a small water village near Shanghai. These are old villages that now survive in large part on the buses full of visitors coming to visit a slice of authentic village life. Visiting a water village is one of the main things one can do around Shanghai, and I was not going to miss this.

Of course, once I arrived I realised pretty quickly that the villages are maintained in their current state in order to attract visitors. The “new” villages, which are residential areas near the authentic ones are dead giveaways. Still, they are great photo opportunities.

While I had decided that I would like to go to one of these locations, I was unsure how to proceed. The 2 main possibilities were either cough some 300 rmb or more for an organized tour – probably including lunch and lots of shopping opportunities – or doing the planning on my own – by bus. However, a third option presented itself this morning, when I found out that the hostel is organizing a tour to this Zhujiajiao. Mostly it just arranged the transport, but at 50 rmb and pick-up from in-front of the hostel, how could I refuse?

The road took us almost 1hr30, in large part because of the traffic jams. The whole country prepares for it’s yearly migration, and things are already looking grim. And smoky. And very, very, still.

However, in the end we did arrive at the village. It consists from around a hundred houses built on the three or four small branches of a river. Part of the transport, people or merchandise, is still done by boat. While it is very obvious that most of the village economy is based on entertaining tourists, the atmosphere is still pretty nice.

There are countless small eateries – from full-grown restaurants, cafes, small shops selling 2 or 3 kinds of self-prepared delicious bits to roaming sellers. Of course, amidst all these there are shops selling authentic crafts items. From silk, silk products, jade and wood figurines, plastic toys, magnets, dolls, shoes and slippers and everything else possible. The village though becomes more interesting when you skip the main commercial streets and venture toward the less visited and therefore less crowded side-streets. Because crowds there are lots. In the parking lot there were 6 buses when we arrived, and probably grew in number later on.

I strolled up and down the alleyways, waterways and crossed all the bridges I could find. Later on, a bit tired but mostly out of ideas what to do (I do not consider shopping an option) I set myself at a small restaurant near the river. And practised people watching, while enjoying a warm Tsingtao beer.

At 5 pm we braved again the traffic and returned to Shanghai. It was an interesting day-trip, and I am glad I did it. However, as Lonely Planet puts it: “if you see a water village, you saw them all”, it means that these aren’t so interesting places to see. Compared to the concrete in Shanghai it was though a nice distraction.

I was very disappointed this evening when I went to FamilyMart nearby to grab some sushi as other customers emptied the supply. So my dream to dine on supermarket sushi crumbled. Oh well, probably tomorrow morning I will treat myself to sushi breakfast (the one provided by the hostel is somewhat un-appetizing).