Fengjing Town is a water town, about 60 kilometers away from Shanghai center, just on the south western edge of town. You’ve heard of Zhouzhang, Zhujiajao, Tongli, and maybe Xitang, but ever been to Fengjing? Probably not, judging by the number of people there (or lack thereof) when we made the trip down a few weeks ago. Still, if you’re looking to check a Shanghai water town off your list, and looking for something a little bit more under-the-radar with tourists than Zhujiajao, there’s plenty of reasons to head to Fengjing, a little paradise for ancient architecture, classic Chinese water town planning, great food, and idiosyncratic sight-seeing opportunities. Highly recommended.

Getting there:

We were quoted between 250-350rmb for a cab out there from Shanghai’s city center – a little rich for our blood – so we opted for the bus. Glad we did. Really simple. You take a bus departing from the station adjacent to Lianhua Lu Metro Station, on Line 1. That’s at the south end of Line 1. The bus is officially called the “Shanghai Lianfeng”, line but, everyone knows it’s the Fengjing bus, and you can ask someone at the station to point you in the right direction. If you’re Chinese is not up to scratch, hold up a paper with 枫泾古镇 (Feng Jing Gu Zhen) and you should be alright. It costs 10rmb and leaves every half-hour.

You’ll be bombing to Fengjing along the Hangzhou-Shanghai expressway. Bus is a trip in itself. It doesn’t reduce speed at all and it seems like the exhaust is held on by supersonic welding, judging by the almighty crashes we heard every time we hit a bump. Exciting stuff. After 45 minutes, Fox Town looms into view and off you go into the country. An hour and a half later, and you’re at the entrance to the old town, Fengjing -- "Town of Lotus”.

Entrance is 50rmb…

… and that gets you access into probably the most peaceful water town around. It’s a little further away from Shanghai than a place like Zhujiajao, and you’re rewarded for the extra travel time with a little more privacy, relatively speaking.

The Basics

"Pass two bridges, within a few steps, and a chance glimpse of ten rivulets"… is the grammatically corrected slogan. Fengjing dates back 1,500 years, and before exploring into the town outright, there’s a little museum there you can check out for a little more insight into that. And from there, jump into a boat -- 50rmb per person (negotiable, depending on the weather) -- and cruise up the river to the first landing stage. From here its sightseeing heaven: 9 additional attractions are included in the entry ticket.

And Into Fengjing

Among our favourite attractions were ‘the memorial of a hundreds trades”, complete with ‘authentic’ waxworks of some really strange occupations. Also, the former site of the “People’s Commune” was great. Don’t forget the visit to the air raid shelter, Mig 15 jet, and Mao Zedong pin collection… truly this an amazing water town. For more traditional attractions, head to Cheng Shifa residence (a famous painter), the old fire house complete with fire boat, and Ding Cong’s house (a famous cartoonist). Along with those there’s “Three Hundred Garden” and Shi Wang Temple -- really a surprisingly diverse amount of things to see.

In addition to these destination points, just wandering around the town is a photographers dream -- 11 bridges, fantastic buildings and laneways, and a traditional living environment allow for some great photos. Maybe give the main street a miss unless you need some serious retail therapy and intro into Chinese pop culture. But everyone is super friendly and happy to take your photo.





Not in to so much into sightseeing, try the food. Amongst our favourites, the pork knuckle (Dingyixing Hocks), looking exactly like schweinhaxen, to delicious Stinky Dofu, Stir-fried Eggs and Chinese Chives (Jiu Cai Chao Dan), Zong Zi with meat, rice, and what looked like an egg stuffed in a bamboo leaf. No menu in the restaurant we tried, and a lot of curious onlookers poking at our food, but in the main street you can find picture menus (at least outside) .

So that’s Fengjing. And if you still want more, you can try visiting the nearby Chinese Painting village -- catch the No.1 bus from outside the main entrance. The journey should take about 10mins. We ran out of time so we weren’t able to check it out but we were assured, “ a little creek winds its way through typical farm houses and traditional elements are found everywhere”.

So after a long day and a lot of food we headed back to the bus station at the entrance to be told we needed to go to the main bus station for a Shanghai bound bus. It was less than 10 minutes and 5rmb away in a three-wheeler. There the fast bus (11 kuai) goes directly onto the highway arriving at Jinjiang Bus station in one hour. Not as much fun as the way out but dead quick after a long day.

The Bottom Line:

Certainly, you should go. Maybe we were really lucky the day we went though, as reading online Fengjing is meant to be a real popular tourist destination. But yes, when we went, apart from the locals and a few school kids, we only saw one tour group and three other westerners. So you really get the place to yourself…