Shanghai | Zhujiajiao Water Town

The plan laid out was for us to visit the ancient town – Zhujiajiao Water Town.

Flashback for a bit, I remembered going to an ancient town more than a decade ago in Shanghai but for the life of me, I can’t remember where. So, if any of you can identify the town by just looking at this old photos, then please tell me is it the same town I visited recently. All I can remember was that to get here took us more than an hour. Yeah Lily! Very informative (eyes rolling).

Kak Elvy; a Shanghai expert (gitewww) took us here by cab. Apparently it is fairly easy to take cab from her home to here. Zhujiajiao Water Town is fairly big, with twist and turn here and there but it was raining when we were there hence we weren’t able t0 venture much. But kira ok lah jugak, I puas hati.

I was made to understand that there are approximately 10 water towns around Shanghai (interesting kan) where the nearest is 30mins from The Bund and the furthest is 2hours or so.

Photo credit : Chinahighlights 

Zhujiajiao Water Town #TravelTips

• Allocate half a day if you plan to visit this place
• Located an hour from The Bund, an achievable feat if you are doing a short trip here

• Lotsa walking, wear good walking shoes or sneakers
• Must ride the boat to maximize the old Shanghai feel, lagi best kalau pakai cheongsam and suruh boater tuh nyanyi
• Plenty of Instagrammable spots - canals, bridges, and ancient buildings and etc

• Great place to get local knick knacks or souvenirs
• Don’t remember seeing halal shop within the water town, but there is one just outside. Sedap giler pulak tuh.
• There’s a Starbucks located by the river. Leh acah-acah cool minum kopi tepi sungai (wink)

Background

With its 1,700 years of history, coined as “The Venice of Shanghai” Zhujiajiao Water Town features romantic waterways, curved ancient bridges (36 stone bridges to be precise), cobbled stone old streets and old buildings dating back as far as the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties (1644-1911). It felt mystical to be here, as if transported back in time.

We didn’t take the boat ride as my friends are not interested, and as for me, I tried in my previous trip, so I figure I’ll pass this time around. Tak nak waste money. Having said that, I highly recommend if you are ever coming here.

We had ‘picnic’ here too, well kinda…. Hahhahhahah…. A few locals were doing the same, kira we all need blend well lah kan. We brought nasi himpit with dendeng daging manis (the dendeng I am used to is the Minang style which is rather spicy). We managed to find a gazebo by the river (later was joined by another friendly local family), got ourselves comfortable and ‘dine’ away while people and boat surfing. I enjoyed it, people surfing is always fun especially if you understood everything they said not knowing that you speak their lingo. Hhahahhaa…. Dengar orang membawang best gak kan kan kan.

Later on we lepaked at the Starbucks by the river. Ambek feel. Ahaks.

Will share some of my Shanghai Disneyland experience. Depa berak rata-rata tak? Jeng jeng jeng…