Xitang, the Beauty of an Ancient Chinese Water Town

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Let’s take a journey back in time…

Xitang is one of the ancient water towns in the south of the Yangtze River which beauty lies in its simple, unadorned appearance and lack of tourists!
(compared to Zhouzhuang, the other famous water town)

Many stores and houses are built on the riversides, the river being in many ways the main road...
So, you naturally follow it, protected by covered corridors, walking by ancient houses, tiny shops and tea house where time has stop a while ago...

Food street is as surprising as this town, might not look very pleasing at first, but happen to be absolutely delicious!! Guess the 'you eat first with your eyes' doesn’t not apply to Xitang!

Spent quite a while walking around, standing on Xitang famous ancient bridges watching the boats passing by and admiring the scenery...
Still wondering how some of those constructions are still holding up! If you look up close, most of them are about to collapse into the river and still...here they are...


Walking through the main back street, we got to discover an other facet of Xitang...its lanes! Plenty of actually (over 120...), most of those, being long and narrow, paved with stone planks and truly fascinating!
One of the most interesting we walked, was less than 1 meter wide...
Together with the black-tiled houses along the roads, the polished stone are the witness of the town's long history.


Xitang remains a place untouched by the grasp of modern life, while being located less than two hours from Shanghai....perfect place to escape for a day or two from the fast pace of life we are living in... More to come (Shanghai happens to be surrounded by lots of authentic places...just need to look for those!)

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