For some bizarre reason, the only bus to leave Shanghai tourist bus station for Zhangzhou each morning departs at the ridiculously early time of 9:30am. The next one does not leave until well into the afternoon. So if we wanted a full day out, we needed to be up at stupid o'clock to ensure we could navigate the Shanghai rush hour and get there in time. From the station beside Shanghai Stadium the journey to Zhouzhang takes just under 2 hours, the majority of which was spent battling through the crowded city streets. Thankfully this allowed me to catch up on some of my lost sleep.
Zhouzhang is described by most guidebooks and local tourist companies as a scenic 'water village'. It is immensely popular with Chinese tourists and has developed a reputation as something of an Asian Venice, albeit on a far smaller scale. Just like its Italian counterpart, Zhouzhang is constructed around a series of canals and is explored as easily by boat as on foot.
Despite the immense amount of people who visit, Zhouzhang manages to to maintain a wonderfully quaint feel to it. It was originally built over 900 years ago with many of the buildings remaining intact and much of the atmosphere maintaining an historic edge. The streets are cobbled with many of the buildings overhanging and shutting out much of the light. It reminded me of medieval European towns such as York in northern England or Vannes in the west of France.
Aside from the wonderfully interwoven canals and picture-perfect architecture, Zhouzhang still has a few other little nooks to offer. The South Lake Garden and the Quanfu Temple are a little more open than the centre of town and are considerably less congested, both are awesome places to stroll by the water's edge. During my visit the town museum also had a superb exhibition of photography taken by some of China's top snappers. One little anomaly though was a pagoda on the edge of town, which despite being delicately crafted and elegantly painted was actually the town's water tower, camouflaged to maintain the picturesque feel.