Ancient China Wuzhen Water Town Day Tour from Hangzhou
Hangzhou, China
Trip Type: Day Trips
Duration: 8 hours
Discover Wuzhen’s cultural background on this full-day tour from Hangzhou. Explore the picturesque water town with its stone pavements winding between antique buildings and ancient stone bridges crossing scenic water pathways. Your tour guide will show you some of Wuzhen’s most famous sights.
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Discover Wuzhen’s cultural background on this full-day tour from Hangzhou. Explore the picturesque water town with its stone pavements winding between antique buildings and ancient stone bridges crossing scenic water pathways. Your tour guide will show you some of Wuzhen’s most famous sights.Tour starts with pick up from your Hangzhou hotel, and take you to Wuzhen water town. Wuzhen is a historic scenic town located in China’s Zhejiang province. It covers about 72 square kilometers, and has a total population of 60,000, but only 12,000 of these are permanent residents. The tiny town is famous for its canals and waterfront houses.
The first sight you will visit in Wuzhen is the Hundred-Bed Museum, the first museum in China to collect and exhibit ancient beds of the Jiangnan area. The museum has collected ancient beds made during both the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, and in modern times. The history behind these ancient beds reflects Chinese civilizations’ history, as beds used to be much more than just places to sleep on. In ancient China, people also sat on them, or rested in them, as there was not much other furniture.
Next, you'll head on to the Sanbai Wine Workshop, the only remaining winery in Wuzhen, built during the Song Dynasty. Witness how wine is handmade using traditional techniques that were popular throughout the Song and Ming Dynasties. Brewing liquor was a huge industry in Wuzhen during the Ming Dynasty, when there were over 20 brewing workshops in Wuzhen alone. Wine from the Sanbai Wine Workshop is known for being full-bodied, with a soft feeling in the mouth, and a lingering aftertaste.
After this, visit the Hongyuan Thai dye house to witness how people in Wuzhen still use ancient methods to make cloth and dye it. Wuzhen is one of the principal sources of this flower-printed blue cloth, the type of cloth popular in this dye house. Watch the painstaking method of creating it and marvel at the final product of striking embossed blue cloth.
Now it's time for lunch, and finally, a Shadow Puppetry Show. Shadow Play is an unique type of Chinese performing arts and is accompanied by Chinese traditional instruments as puppets are used against an illuminated backdrop to create the shadow of movement. Some of the instruments you’ll be introduced to are the erhu, and the Chinese flute.
Finally, for a final perspective of Wuzhen, you will embark on a boat ride down the river. Board a rowboat and relax as you enjoy the sights of the old town and see people going about their daily lives in this ancient peaceful water down. Before you go back to your hotel, feel free to roam the town at your own leisure.
The first sight you will visit in Wuzhen is the Hundred-Bed Museum, the first museum in China to collect and exhibit ancient beds of the Jiangnan area. The museum has collected ancient beds made during both the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, and in modern times. The history behind these ancient beds reflects Chinese civilizations’ history, as beds used to be much more than just places to sleep on. In ancient China, people also sat on them, or rested in them, as there was not much other furniture.
Next, you'll head on to the Sanbai Wine Workshop, the only remaining winery in Wuzhen, built during the Song Dynasty. Witness how wine is handmade using traditional techniques that were popular throughout the Song and Ming Dynasties. Brewing liquor was a huge industry in Wuzhen during the Ming Dynasty, when there were over 20 brewing workshops in Wuzhen alone. Wine from the Sanbai Wine Workshop is known for being full-bodied, with a soft feeling in the mouth, and a lingering aftertaste.
After this, visit the Hongyuan Thai dye house to witness how people in Wuzhen still use ancient methods to make cloth and dye it. Wuzhen is one of the principal sources of this flower-printed blue cloth, the type of cloth popular in this dye house. Watch the painstaking method of creating it and marvel at the final product of striking embossed blue cloth.
Now it's time for lunch, and finally, a Shadow Puppetry Show. Shadow Play is an unique type of Chinese performing arts and is accompanied by Chinese traditional instruments as puppets are used against an illuminated backdrop to create the shadow of movement. Some of the instruments you’ll be introduced to are the erhu, and the Chinese flute.
Finally, for a final perspective of Wuzhen, you will embark on a boat ride down the river. Board a rowboat and relax as you enjoy the sights of the old town and see people going about their daily lives in this ancient peaceful water down. Before you go back to your hotel, feel free to roam the town at your own leisure.
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