DISTANCE: 8km (5 miles)
TIME: A full day
START: Ming Qing Jie
END: Luoxing Islet
POINTS TO NOTE: Like all of the water villages around Shanghai, Tongli is quite touristy, so try to visit on a weekday and arrive early in the morning or in the late afternoon when the tour groups have left. To get there from Shanghai, the easiest way is to hire a car for the day. There are also tour buses that depart from the Shanghai Tour Bus Centre (2409 Zhongshan No. 2 Road; tel: 2409 5555, ask for English language service). Bus tickets generally include entrance. Tongli itself is entirely navigable on foot. An entrance ticket (RMB 100) is required to enter the village, and includes free entry to three sites. Book an English-speaking guide in advance via the Tongli Tourist Information Centre (512 6333 1145). Most information in Tongli is in Chinese only, so a guide will give some useful insight into what you’re looking at.
Escape from Shanghai for a day to the beguiling old water town of Tongli, so pretty that it’s often used as a backdrop for Chinese films and television shows. Situated on the Grand Canal and surrounded by five streams, the built-up area is made up of seven islets, connected by a series of 49 ancient arched stone bridges with typically evocative names such as ‘Lasting Celebration’ and ‘Peace and Tranquillity’. This was once a wealthy place, where retired officials and native sons who had made their fortune returned to build the finely crafted grand mansions and classical gardens that make Tongli such a treasure today.
One of Tongli’s picturesque waterways
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Ming Qing Street
Enter Tongli (entrance ticket required) on Ming Qing Jie, named for the Ming- and Qing-era wooden houses that line it. Today, the houses are filled with souvenir shops, restaurants and snack stalls. Be sure to try the local sweet lotus root (tongli lianou) and sweetbread called jiu niang bing – decent, reasonably priced versions are available at Lin’s Store and Gu Xian Cun on Ming Qing Jie. You’ll want to come back here for lunch at Xiangge Jiulou, see 1, to try the local specialities, or the Nanyuan Teahouse, see 2, for an atmospheric and quintessential experience of Tongli.
A relaxing change from big city life
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Gengle Hall
Head west on Xinzhen Jie, admiring the ancient architecture and town’s signature bridges as you go. Two blocks in, on an islet, is Gengle Hall 1 [map] (Gengle Tang), evidence of the wealth that once flourished here. Ming Dynasty official Zhuxiang – who was also known as Gengle – built this mansion retreat when he retired from government service. According to local lore, he was so pleased with the result that he rarely left the 54 rooms and lovely gardens, becoming something of a hermit. Today, you can walk through the three courtyards and some of the 41 remaining rooms, but the real star here is the garden: a zigzag bridge leads to a lovely pavilion, and outside the Sweet Osmanthus Hall the scent of the ancient sweet osmanthus trees still drifts by. Buildings are arranged around a pretty lotus pond, sited so that each has its own special view of the garden: there’s a library, an art studio and a dining room.
Three Bridges
Head north a block, then east at the first right turn, to a trio of bridges: Peace Bridge (Taiping Qiao), Luck Bridge (Jili Qiao) and Lasting Celebration Bridge (Changqing Qiao). These Ming and Qing Dynasty ‘ternate’ (meaning arranged in threes) bridges cross at the confluence of three rivers, creating a sort of ancient elevated highway over the water. In ancient times, it was believed that crossing the three bridges would bring good fortune on milestone occasions such as weddings and birthdays. Thus brides used to be carried across the bridges in their nuptial sedan chairs on their wedding day – and today, tourists recreate that same journey, dressed in Chinese wedding garb, to the accompaniment of traditional Chinese music. Look for the couplets on Luck Bridge extolling the views.
The ternate bridges link to two mansions, Chongben Hall 2 [map] (Chongben Tang) and Jiayin Hall (Jiayin Tang) 3 [map]. Tongli native son Qian Youqin built Chongben Hall, a grand two-storey house, in 1912, renovating an older residence on the property. The pretty house is smaller than Tongli’s other mansions, but still has four courtyards. The highlight is its more than 100 carvings featuring symbols of good fortune, such as bats, cranes and vases, and scenes from the Chinese literary classics.
Head south across Lasting Celebration Bridge to Jiayin Hall, with its whitewashed walls and doorways topped with little upturned eaves. Liu Bingnan moved to Tongli and built this stunning mansion in 1922, at the then unheard-of cost of 22,000 silver taels. Jiayin’s main building is designed in the Ming style, and is particularly well known for its carvings of scenes from the Chinese classical novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Tongli is peaceful in the morning
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Chinese musicians in a teahouse
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A garden for reflection
For one of the loveliest gardens anywhere, head east for about a block and a half from Jiayin Hall to the Retreat and Reflection Garden 4 [map] (Tuisi Yuan), a World Heritage site. Imperial court official Ren Lansheng created the garden in 1886, naming it after a favourite saying of Chinese officials: ‘When in office, one should be loyal to the Emperor; when away from office, one should meditate on his faults’. The 6,600-sq m (71,000-sq ft) garden is indeed a calming retreat, dotted with ponds filled with carp, ancient, shady trees, bonsais and flowering plants. The family home is in the western part of the garden, the living rooms in the centre, and a scenic garden with pavilions, walkways and rock gardens in the east.
An unusual museum
A short walk directly east of the Garden is the Museum of Ancient Chinese Sex Culture 5 [map] (Zhongguo Gudai Xing Wenhua Bowuguan; www.chinasexmuseum.com; daily 8am–5pm; charge), which was relocated here from Shanghai in 2004 because of rising rents in the city. The museum houses the private collection of noted sexologist and Shanghai University professor Liu Danyin, who has amassed a comprehensive collection of more than 1,200 artefacts on the history of Chinese sexuality. The well-curated museum is organised by themes such as sex in literature and the arts, and sex and evolution. There is insight into Chinese culture, with exhibits on foot binding, dowry trunks (explicit paintings of copulating couples at the bottom of these trunks were meant as an instruction manual for newly-wed daughters), lovemaking chairs, statues and sculpture. Much of the exhibition is quite graphic.
For a different perspective on Tongli, head for the Gondolier Pier, a short walk south of the museum. You can hire a gondola (RMB 70) for a relaxing ride through the canals, sometimes accompanied by a singing gondolier.
You can also visit Luoxing Islet 6 [map] (Luoxing Zhou), in Tongli Lake, to the east of the town – the price is included in your ticket. A pleasant boat ride takes you over to the islet, which has a strong religious legacy that dates back to the Yuan Dynasty. There are three temples here – Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian, all of which have been rebuilt in recent years.
Ancient watertowns
Tongli is one of several historic watertowns close to Shanghai, with ancient whitewashed houses and temples built along winding canals crisscrossed by arched stone bridges. Each of the following watertowns can be reached in a daytrip from Shanghai. Avoid weekends and public holidays when tourist crowds are out in full force.
About 90 minutes from Shanghai, Zhouzhuang is one of China’s oldest watertowns and one of the larger ones – it’s also one of the busiest. The 900-year-old Taoist Chengxu Temple provides a welcome retreat from the crowds. Pretty Xitang had a starring role in Mission Impossible III, with Tom Cruise leaping across its ancient bridges. It’s about an hour and a half from Shanghai and several canal-side guesthouses are available if you wish to stay the night, when the town becomes quieter and more alluring. What Qibao lacks in size and authenticity, it makes up for in convenience – you can reach it via Shanghai’s Line 9 metro in under 30 minutes. There is a pleasant temple and a tiny shadow puppet theatre that are worth visiting.
1 Xiangge Jiulou
Ming Qing Jie; tel: 512 6333 6988; daily 8.30am–8pm; $
Serves up tasty local treats, much like the many other restaurants you’ll find on Ming Qing Street, but the menu is in English. The dishes come from local Jiangsu cuisine, with an emphasis on seafood. Local specialities include smoked fish, braised pig’s trotters, spring rolls and dried tofu (beancurd).
2 Nanyuan Teahouse
Dongkang Lu and Nankang Lu; daily 8.30am–6pm
Traditional teahouse in a restored wooden Qing-era building serves refreshments and local snacks, and offers excellent canal views from its second-storey windows. Get there early for the atmosphere: locals gather first thing in the morning to sip tea and exchange gossip.