A Blast from the Past in China

The spacious visitor’s center looked like train stations I’ve seen in smaller Chinese cities. The generous air conditioning provided temporary refuge from the sweltering Zhejiang summer, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before we would be back outside with the brutal southeast China August afternoon sun beating down. And of course within minutes, we were back outside piling into tour trams and speeding down a neat concrete path clearly built for no other traffic. I knew we were meant to visit an ancient Chinese village with a 1,300-year history, but the trip was starting to feel like a visit to either the Universal Studios backlot or Jurassic Park. The latter would be a more appropriate comparison, because like the film about dinosaurs coming back to life, visiting stunning village of Wuzhen,a renowned ancient town for affordable China tours, is not unlike a theme park trip through a time machine.

After being unloaded from the trams, the tour guide welcomed us into another open-air tourist center, where a cross-section model of the town’s street depicted how power lines, cable TV, telephones, water, and sewage had each been separately buried underground. Again, my concept of what visiting an "ancient Chinese village," coupled with the demonstration of underground cable TV wiring left me a bit confused, but once I experienced the stone streets of Wuzhen, I started understanding better what this tourist attraction was about.
Many of the dilapidated ancient villages have disappeared with China’s recent progress, but Wuzhen was preserved and restored into a remarkable first-rate tourist resort. The town was built amidst a network of canals which make it somewhat like a quaint Chinese Venice. A boatman ferried us across what seemed like a moat before we could actually set foot in the actual town. When walking down the city’s central thoroughfare, the preserved authenticity of every shop is remarkable, but they’re all clearly redeveloped for China tourism purposes only. Just under the towering pagoda near the city’s gates, the stone exterior of a small bar hides the indoor neon lights and big screen TVs showing NBA highlights. An ancient bookstore sells scrolls of characters brushed on bamboo slats, not so much practical today, but a great souvenir. Most of the town’s original shops along the street were reopened, selling the same thing they did centuries ago.

Every few blocks, a quaint stone bridge crossed the city’s central canal, which was also perpetually filled with traditional boats full of tourists. The town’s nicest hotel was open for VIP business, and a sign in the window offered every service the most discerning traveler could imagine in both Chinese and English. I questioned the fact that the nicest hotel, and indeed the nicest buildings, were on the opposite side of the street from the water, sacrificing a stunning aquatic view. Our tour guide confirmed that in antiquity the richer people lived on that side, and asked me to guess why. “Mosquitos!” I blurted out, and she smiled in agreement, but added that also more manual labor was performed on the water side. Certainly if the water was dirty or smelly back then, the town has lost some authenticity since the water is pristine now.
I noticed a sign pointing towards a “foot-binding museum” down an alley off the main road, but our tour guide never mentioned anything about it, so I quietly broke off from the group. After a few hundred meters, I found a dark old building with a couple of wax statues depicting the ancient procedure once performed on Chinese women, but the display was clearly not ready for the public. We stayed only on the city’s central road during our visit and saw plenty, so who knows how much potential for future tourism development Wuzhen has. I would be surprised if someday animatronics robot people demonstrate ancient Chinese culture which attracts so many foreign tourists joining popular China tour package all over the town. There is an ongoing debate as to tourism’s effect on native regional cultures, and Wuzhen is a great model of how creating a modern tourist resort can provide plentiful funds to preserve the aroma of yesteryear even if the carbon-dating of every stone doesn’t satisfy historical purists.

As we neared the end of the mile, nearly everyone in our group was soaked in sweat from the summer sun, but nary could a frowny face be found. We stopped into a restaurant that thankfully had powerful air conditioning, and I rushed to a seat close to the life-saving machine. But I don’t think that was authentic. The beer was cold too, and I’m maybe 87 percent sure they couldn’t do that in the olden days. As we waited for the ferry to take us back, we peeked over the shoulders of an elementary school class who was brought to the water to practice drawing the dazzling water scenery. I was jealous. I never got to go on a field trip to a place like this when I was that age. Maybe autumn visitors can avoid becoming drenched in sweat.
Travel Tips for your China vacation packages
Admission
Regular admission for the east section (featured in this article) is 100 yuan and the west section is 120. Daily admission for both sections is 150 yuan.
How to Get There
Wuzhen lies within the triangle created by Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou (contained in top 10 China tour packages), and buses are available from any of those cities. By car it is less than a two-hour drive.
Where to Stay
Hotels within the actual ancient town can be affordable, but vary widely, with prices ranging from around 100 yuan a night to over 1,000. Local guesthouses often rent rooms for as low as 50 yuan.
What to Buy
A plethora of historical souvenirs are available along the ancient street.