Ancient water town of Wuzhen ( 乌镇), China
Rows of weathered Qing dynasty wooden homes, ancient stone bridges curving over canals… at a distance from the skyscrapers of Shanghai, but amidst the rows of souvenir shops — that is how I would describe my travel to Wuzhen.
During my visit in June 2016, I was the only non-Chinese around. That meant a lot of people coming over to ask for selfies to be taken with them, but frequent downpours ensured two things: crowds withering away and just beautiful cloudy skies for photography :)
One of the six famous ancient water towns south of the Yangtze River, Wūzhèn (乌镇) was part of the Grand Canal (Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal). The canal was built over a thousand years to facilitate exchange of produced goods and culture between the northern and southern regions of eastern China.
Wuzhen was established in the late 9th century, although the first settlers here were the New Stone Age people, 7,000 years ago. According to historical records, Xinchun Village in the East Village district of Wuzhen has relics from the Neolithic Period, belonging to the Majiabin civilization.
My visit also coincided with the installation of Floating Fish by Florentijn Hofman — a 15m long, 7m high art installation in the middle of ancient Wuzhen.
Wuzhen is also home to the modern yet culturally auspicious “twin lotus” design based Wuzhen Grand Theatre.
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