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Zhouzhuang Water Town Tours

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Suzhou and Zhouzhuang Water Village Day Trip from Shanghai

Name: Suzhou and Zhouzhuang Water Village Day Trip from Shanghai
Brand: Hantang International Travel Service
SKU: 2052SIC_03
Price: 135.00 USD
Rating: 3.5 (400 reviews)

Shanghai, China

From $135.00

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Nearby

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10 hours (approx.)
Pickup offered
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

Overview

Appreciate China’s provincial delights during a full-day tour of two charming traditional towns from Shanghai. Escape the metropolitan mayhem of the city and see how daily life has remained unchanged in these quaint and ancient enclaves. With an accomplished guide, stroll amid the botanical beauty of Suzhou’s gorgeous gardens; cruise along the waterways of Zhozhuang on a Chinese-style gondola; and appease your appetite with a delicious Chinese lunch in a rustic restaurant. Enjoy convenient round-trip transportation from your Shanghai hotel.

Visit the two picturesque towns of Suzhou and Zhouzhuang
Gondola cruise through the beautiful waterways of Zhouzhuang
Stroll through Net Master Garden—a great example of a typical Ming Dynasty garden
Hotel pickup and drop off from Shanghai hotels

What's Included

English-speaking tour guide
Air-conditioned vehicle
Lunch
Hotel pickup and drop off in the city center
Boat tour in the water village
Admission tickets

Gratuities

Meeting And Pickup

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Start time

08:00 AM

Pickup details

Tour departs from Shanghai hotels (cruise port pickup not available). Your local operator will contact you a night before the travel date. Please advise your hotel name and your phone number at time of booking.

What To Expect

Depart from your Shanghai hotel in a comfortable, air-conditioned minivan and begin the scenic journey to Suzhou, an ancient town famed for the beauty of its verdant gardens. Listen as your guide offers informative narration on the town hailed as the Venice of the east, and then disembark your coach to explore the Master-of-Nets Garden.

Marvel at the town’s exquisite example of Ming Dynasty landscaping and admire the harmonious style of Chinese garden construction. Continue to the town’s ancient city wall, reputed to date back to 600 BC, and stroll parallel to the picturesque Grand Canal. Conclude your tour of Suzhou with a visit to its 14th-century silk factory then revitalize with a delicious Chinese lunch in a local restaurant.

Sated, return to your vehicle to travel to Zhozhuang, a quaint ton thronged with winding waterways and charming structures. Admire the simple, perfectly preserved houses and hear of how the town’s history dates back to the 11th century as you sail the canals in a Chinese-style gondola.

Relax during the journey back to your Shanghai hotel and bid farewell to your guide and group upon your return.

Master-of-Nets Garden

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Jinghang Waterway

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Panmen Gate

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Suzhou Silk Museum

1 hour • Admission Ticket Free

Zhouzhuang Water Town

1 hour 30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Zhouzhuang Boat

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Infants must sit on laps
Not wheelchair accessible

Most travelers can participate
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 999 travelers

Operated by Hantang International Travel Service

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.

about cancellations.

Traveler Photos

Featured review

Jennifer_L

We were picked up at our hotel at exactly he arranged time Meet by a delightful guide Annaliese, On the 29th July my wife & I decided to do Suzhou & Zhouzhuang Water Village Day Trip from Shanghai. We were picked up at exactly our pre-arranged time and meet by our delightful guide Aleena. We booked a group tour but due to changes became a personal tour, which turned out to be in our favour. Our very informative guide made it a day to remember. Our trip to Suzhou garden and Zhouzhuang village, a walk through the Village, then cruising on a gondola through the beautiful waterways made fun with our singing oars-lady. We then had free time to browse, but we choose to sit in the shade by the canal & watched the gondalas go by, as the temperatures was 36 deg. We then boarded our Coach for a very interesting visit to a silk processing factory then a delicious meal, then an enjoyable ride back to our Hotel, talking to Aleena about her country Aleena's English was excellent and she a delight, and was not imposing in anyway. (.Aleena in Chinese means "Eloquent " ). I would thoroughly recommend this Tour Roy and Jennifer

Reviews

3.5

400 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

Showing 1-10 of 400 reviews

Day Out

FarAway291151, Nov 2019

The attractions were good, but the mini bus should be sent to the wreckers it was small we all had to sit sideways or if you were small legs right into the other chair, plus a bit run down, 5 hours in the van, the guide was average he fell asleep in the first hour of our trip and then on the way home, I gave him a tip and he said it wasn't enough

Good Overview

LG964, Oct 2019

Our tour guide Tom was excellent. He understood that we had read up on the histories of Suzhou and he added to our knowledge. We enjoyed the Master of Nets Garden which is a UNESCO site, and the water village of Zhouzhuang, where 20,000 people live and sell their wares.

Fantastic Day out

Jennifer_L, Aug 2019

Wouldn’t do it again

Robert_S, Jul 2019

Only average. Frankly I didn’t find the waterpark to be that charming. The guide kept trying to make comparisons to Venice, Italy - but it’s not even close. Everybody told me how beautiful it was, to me it’s just OK at best. Especially for $135

Awsome

Irene J, Jul 2019

Even though it was raining we still enjoyed our trip to "little Venice" - Suzhou & Zhouzhuang Water Village. Also the silk factory was very interesting to see the silk worm to the finished product. Thank you Frank for an enjoyable day.

Just beautiful!

Guide43123809564, Jul 2019

I loved by Suzhou and Zhouzhuang Water Village Day trip. This was a great way to get out of Shanghai city for a full day. Our Vehicle was very comfortable, Frank our guide was wonderful and our group was very small (and lovely!) My highlight was The water village, it was a really special place to visit and looked like it was out of a picture book! I would definitely recommend this tour to get you out of the big city and to experience some village life.

Water Town in Shanghai

Doris_O, Jun 2019

Frank was our tour guide, and he did a great job explaining the history of the sights, yet the tour did not seemed rushed. The water town in Souzhou was magical from beginning to end. The Chinese Garden was enchanting and quaint. We had a memorable day!

This tour was interesting and...

Suzana_J, Aug 2018

This tour was interesting and Zhouzhuang is really neat place, we even had a gondola operator sing for us. Some walking, but not too much and not too exhausting. Everything was well done. The food was good as well. Good tour and there were few nice things to take pictures of.

quick trip

AnnMarie_Y, Jul 2018

This was a pretty quick trip given that both cities are a bit of a drive from Shanghai and traffic was heavy on a Saturday morning. We only had time to see one place in Suzhou, the Net Master Garden. We stopped to see the old city wall, but there was only time to look at it from the distance. We could have done without the obligatory stop at the silk factory, although a number of people in the group did buy some souvenirs. Zhouzhuang was lovely but very crowded with narrow passages that were packed with people as it was a long week-end in China. The canal ride was pleasant but there wasn't time to see much as we had to head back to Shanghai. It would have been nice to have spent more time looking at the shops. Either city could be a day trip all it's own.

Unfortunately, I really can't highly...

Bryan M, Jun 2018

Unfortunately, I really can't highly recommend this tour. I would say Zhouzhuang is most definitely a place to visit, but you can leave Suzhou out of it. We were picked up at 7:30 a.m. and didn't reach Suzhou until almost 11:00. The traffic in Shanghai is crazy and we had to pick up at 3 other hotels before we even headed out of the city. We could have easily taken the Metro to a central meeting point and avoided at least 1.5 hours of sitting in traffic. Suzhou is a city of 10 million people, so another nectic metropolis. The Net Masters garden is nice, but you can visit Yu Garden in Shanghai which is vastly more impressive. The grand canal in Suzhou is also quite nice, but again not worth all the driving. We then got back into the car for another 45 minute drive to Zhouzhuang. Zhouzhuang is absolutely gorgeous and I would have liked to spend much more time there, but we only had an hour as it was time to get back in the car and head back to Shanghai. Also, we gave the tip to Tom the tour guide, but I think we should have split it ourselves between Tom and the driver, who was absolutely fantastic. We assume Tom split it with him - we hope so anyway. We had tossed up between this trip and the bullet train to Hangzhou - we definitely regretted our choice.

Great tour, very special to visit this...

Sunil D, May 2018

Great tour, very special to visit this village. Just don't mind the tourist-traps!

This tour unfortunately did not meet...

Johnson L, May 2018

This tour unfortunately did not meet up to my expectations. All my friends told me that I had to do a water village tour, so I saw this one on Viator and decided to book it. Our tour guide was Tom, who spoke decent English but that's perhaps the only good thing I can say about him. Tom unfortunately had a tendency to shout at us - while I understand this might have been part of his effort to be articulate, it's not the most pleasant experience when you're with him in a small van. I also found his tour guide skills lacking - you know how on some bad tours your tour leader doesn't say much and there are long stretches of silence? That was how it was with Tom, who had moments where he shared some information but was not really proactive about giving us background and insights into what we were seeing - expect to mostly sit in awkward quiet actually. At times, the only thing he seemed to know what to say was please make sure to have all your belongings, which he emphatically say so many times that I felt like I was being scolded at. On top of that, the lunch place we went to was rather subpar - definitely a spot specifically catered to tourists, and was rather sad looking. Save yourself the money and book another tour.

Excellent tour , a long day...

Ian C, Apr 2018

Excellent tour , a long day , brilliant driver negotiating Shanghai Ttraffic....large wide choiced lunch...with the hi lite being the Water Village. Earlier we had been to the Masters Garden....each of these transformed from the reality of Shanghais 25 million people. I was very impressed with this tour including pickup/drop off at my hotel...an 11 hour return trip....nice pace was kept....Excellent Tour

Beautiful! Both Suzhou and...

MrsHM_B, Apr 2018

Beautiful! Both Suzhou and Zhouzhuang are both worth seeing and a complete contrast to the busy city of Shanghai. There is lots of travelling by bus/minivan involved as they are quite some distance outside of the city but well worth it. The tour guide contacted us the day before to confirm our pick up time, she was very friendly and was very knowledgeable at both locations. Would highly recommend.

It was a all day tour. Lunch was...

WaiPing_W, Apr 2018

It was a all day tour. Lunch was delicious. I love the Water Village. Both the cruise and shopping were excellent.

We went on this Tour on 26th March...

Adrian_H, Mar 2018

We went on this Tour on 26th March 2018 Tour Guide The tour guide was informative and pleasant Van The van was very cramped and uncomfortable - lots of bumpy roads, poor driver and no room to stretch legs The main downside of this trip was that we were first to be picked up at 0730 we then spent 2 hours going round Shanghai picking up 4 other groups. We were returned to our hotel at 8pm in the evening as we were the first on we were also the last off. So 12.5 hours in a cramped uncomfortable van was not my idea of fun. The trip to Suzhou and Zhounzhuang Water Village was very good and if you were lucky enough to be last one and first off the day would not have been too arduous.

This is an excellent day trip if you...

Stephen A, Mar 2018

This is an excellent day trip if you don't have much time to spare. The Master of Nets Garden Suzhou and Zhouzhuang Water Village are both fascinating and worth seeing. As was the unexpected detour to see a silk factor as long as you don't mind the hard sell What was good Knowledge of the guide, organisation, food and sites What was bad As with any day trip there is little opportunity to do your own thing. If you see something interesting and want to explore forget it - it's a pretty tight schedule. Also It's a really long day with most of it on the coach. Our hotel pick up was 08:00 and we arrived at Suzhou at about 11 and left Zhouzhuang around 4. We got back to Shanghai at 17:30 as promised but it took 3 1/2 hours to get back to our hotel as we crawled round dropping people off at different hotels. At one point we were only 5 kms from our hotel but didn't actually make it there for another hour and a half due to another drop off- pretty frustrating. If I'd have known I would have organised my own transport via the metro to and from a more central point which would have saved us about 3 hours in traffic.

This was a wonderful tour and our...

Rae_H, Mar 2018

This was a wonderful tour and our tour guide, Frank, has a tremendous amount of knowledge. He really made the experience enjoyable. All the stops were fabulous, especially Zhouzhuang. The gondola ride and walk through the town made it all worth while. The silk factory was very interesting and well worth the stop. I would recommend this tour!

Great tour. Tour guide could have...

Aaren S, Feb 2018

Great tour. Tour guide could have been more helpful about how to deal with local vendors, but the overall experience was good!

Although the tour guide Tom was OK...

Bernadette_Y, Jan 2018

Although the tour guide Tom was OK and polite, the experience with the driver of the van completely spoiled our tour. The driver tremendously disregarded the safety of his passengers. He was: 1 driving recklessly, weaving in and out of traffic 2 speeding on wet roads and tailgating 3 wearing earphones and watching a video on his phone, which he placed on the speedometer I stood up, seeing that he was inattentive on the road, saw this myself, and informed the guide I asked for a change of driver, to which Tom said was not possible. I was adamant that safety is not negotiable, and Tom assured me that his office manager would speak with the driver. I asked that all devices be kept away from him, including the earphones. Tom agreed. Tom appeared intimidated by the driver, and was afraid to demand safe practices immediately. Yet, the return trip was not much better, the driver was still driving dangerously, and this time, he had one wireless earphone in his left ear. Really thankful we returned to the hotel in one piece. Never had such a bad experience with a driver, and I cannot recommend to use this agent again. They were given the opportunity to correct the situation, yet the return journey was not at all enjoyable and peaceful. The interior of the van was dirty, and the air circulated had this pungent sour smell.

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