周庄
Zhouzhuang
China's No. 1 water town — 900-year-old stone bridges, canal-side Ming houses, and the view that launched a thousand postcards.
周庄
China's No. 1 water town — 900-year-old stone bridges, canal-side Ming houses, and the view that launched a thousand postcards.
Zhouzhuang is the water town all other Chinese water towns are compared to. Built on a network of canals 30 minutes from Suzhou, its 900-year-old streets are crossed by 14 stone bridges, each with a different architectural style. The Shen and Zhang family mansions, built by wealthy Ming Dynasty merchants, occupy entire canal-front blocks with hundreds of rooms. The Twin Bridges (Shide and Yong'an) became famous when Chen Yifei's painting of them was bought by Armand Hammer and presented to Deng Xiaoping in 1984 — after that, Zhouzhuang's tourism exploded. Go early morning or stay overnight to experience the town without crowds.
