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 14^th station from where I start, so it took me about 40 minutes ride on the train.

at the main road heading to Qibao

one of the beggar

park your bicycles here

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.

old shops #1

old shops #2

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.

just look at the crowds!

erkk.. ducklings?

strawberries!

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 2^nd 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

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