I got the opportunity to re-visit Shanghai last March. At last a chance for me to visit one of the ancient water town around Shanghai, one of the places that I didn’t manage to visit during my last trip in 2010. There are many ancient water towns located in the outskirts of the city but I opted for Qibao Ancient Water Town.
Why I picked Qibao? There are other popular ancient water town such as Zhuozhuang or Tongli right? Qibao is one of the uncomercialized water village. It does not charge any entrance fees compared to others. Furthermore, Qibao is the nearest water village to Shanghai and it is accessible via metro LINE 9.
The weather was still cold there during that time with temperatures ranging between 11 degrees till 17 degrees celcius. From the IBIS hotel in Pudong area, I took a cab to Yanggao Road station, the nearest LINE 9 station to my hotel. It was the first station for LINE 9 so there were not so much people there. The information panel displayed that Qibao station as the 14th station from where I start, so it took me about 40 minutes ride on the train.
at the main road heading to Qibao
From Qibao station, I had to walk about 10 minutes before I reach the ancient town area. Like most of the ancient towns, Qibao has two most important elements ; ancient style architecture and water scenery. The old shops pretty much reminds of Melaka and also Hoi An.
The main area of Qibao water town can be seen as below
Apart from the lovely scenery at the water area,this town is made of a narrow alley squashed in between two rows of shop houses. The crowd was massive. Most of them are locals doing their daily business. I only managed to sight a few foreigners there.
Majority of the stalls there are selling food but there are also stalls selling clothes, souvenirs and handicrafts. Too bad I could not try any of the food. I walked until the end of the road and turn into the next road to get back to where I started. On the 2nd road, renovation works was still in progress to upgrade the area so not much to see except for the water scenery again.
Before I left the area, I stopped at one elderly man sitting by the roadside. He was playing a very nice chinese music. Further upfront, there was another man who was making a bicycle out of a wire. His art was very nice. I did bought one for 20 RMB.
I bought one of this for only 20RMB
I left Qibao and head towards Yuyuan Garden after that.
Location Map
View Qibao Ancient Water Town in a larger map
I always saw this place in Chinese drama and HK and I thought it might be so far away from Shanghai. Thanks for sharing this cause I plan to bring my mom go Shanghai probably next year. =D
Yup, a good place to visit if you have limited time.. but if you have more time you can check out Zhuozhuang or Tongli village in Suzhou.. 2-3 hours from Shanghai.. they are said to be bigger 🙂
Hi, I’ll be in Shanghai for a short business trip. Will be staying in Shimen No. 1 road, very close to Nanjing West Road. I will have an evening free to wonder around and appreciate if you could suggest any nearest (if you know) old/water town that I could go to 🙂
Thanks so much!
Hi sorry late reply.. the nearest to Shanghai is Qibao.. the others all takes 2-3 hours to reach.. take the train LINE 9 and get down at Qibao station.. 5 minutes walk from the station and you’re there 🙂