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Suzhou and Zhouzhuang Water Village Day Trip from Shanghai: Experience Centuries-Old Chinese Culture
3.7
422 Ratings
Suzhou
Visit two picturesque Chinese towns, Suzhou and Zhouzhuang on a day trip from Shanghai. You’ll see how daily life has remained unchanged over the centuries in these unique old towns. Visit the Suzhou’s magnificent gardens, feast on a Chinese lunch and travel through Zhouzhuang’s waterways on a Chinese-style gondola.
Visit two picturesque Chinese towns, Suzhou and Zhouzhuang on a day trip from Shanghai. You’ll see how daily life has remained unchanged over the centuries in these unique old towns. Visit the Suzhou’s magnificent gardens, feast on a Chinese lunch and travel through Zhouzhuang’s waterways on a Chinese-style gondola.
Duration:
10 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
-
Master-of-Nets Garden - Suzhou is one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze basin, founded in about 600 B.C. With its interconnected waterways and beautiful environment, the city is often referred as “The Venice of the East”.
The gardens embody the harmonious principles of Chinese garden construction, which dictate that gardens should attempt to…
- Master-of-Nets Garden - Suzhou is one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze basin, founded in about 600 B.C. With its interconnected waterways and beautiful environment, the city is often referred as “The Venice of the East”.
The gardens embody the harmonious principles of Chinese garden construction, which dictate that gardens should attempt to create a microcosm of the universe in a confined space. Net Master Garden is the best and most celebrated as a model Ming Dynasty Garden in all of Suzhou.
- Jinghang Waterway - The Grand Canal starts in Beijing, pass by Suzhou, and ends in Hangzhou. It is over 1,000 kilometers from the North China to South China, which is known as a miracle in the world.
- Panmen Gate - Panmen Gate is one of the oldest “ancient city walls” left in Suzhou, with the history over 1000 years. You will have the chance to picture it by Grand Canal.
- Suzhou Silk Museum - Suzhou No. 1 Silk Mill is world wide known for its silk products, with the Silk Museum in its workshop. It is your chance to purchase the traditional Chinese silk products.
- Zhouzhuang Water Town - With the reputation of No. 1 water village in the world, Zhouzhuang is well known for its beautiful environment and simple architecture, well preserved for over 900 years. The majority of the town’s residences were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and nearly 100 classic courtyards and 60 carved-brick archways are still in use.
Boat tour is also included in the water village.
- Zhouzhuang Boat - You will visit the water town of Zhouzhuang and board a Chinese-style gondola to cruise the waterways of the town. In this water village, locals live life on waterways, still doing everyday activities from washing clothes to shopping from vendors in boats.
What's Included
- Scenic boat tour in the picturesque water village
- Knowledgeable English-speaking tour guide
- Delicious lunch included
- Comfortable travel with in-vehicle air conditioning
- All admission tickets provided
- Convenient hotel pickup and drop off in the city center
- Scenic boat tour in the picturesque water village
- Knowledgeable English-speaking tour guide
- Delicious lunch included
- Comfortable travel with in-vehicle air conditioning
- All admission tickets provided
- Convenient hotel pickup and drop off in the city center
What's Not Included
- Gratuities
- Gratuities
Additional Information
- This is a Shared Tour - 3 people are needed as a minimum to proceed with the tour.
- This is a Shared Tour - 3 people are needed as a minimum to proceed with the tour.
Location
Master-of-Nets Garden
No.11 Kuojiatou Alley, Daichengqiao Road, Canglang District,
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
3.7
(422 Ratings)
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B7713welizh
Jun 4, 2025
Great Tour with Tom - We had two tours with the exceptional guide Tom. His English skill is amazing and his deep knowledge of Shanghai and China was fascinating. When I come back to Shanghai, I hope to have another tour with him.
Also, the driver was safe and the food delicious.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jaying_w
May 26, 2025
Wonderful day! Highly recommend. - I booked this tour for my family reunion of 11 adults to celebrate my mothers 90th birthday. Our tour guide Tom and driver picked us up in a comfortable and air conditioned 12 passenger van. It poured on our way from Shanghai to Suzhou but miraculously cleared up for our tour of Master of the Nets Garden. The rest of the day was beautiful, everyone had a marvelous time. The tour company was very responsive when I realized I lost my phone, returning my emails promptly. Luckily, a merchant in Zhouzhuang found my phone and messengered it back to my Shanghai hotel.
Review provided by Viator
Cathy
May 15, 2025
An Amazing Day in Suzhou! - Elena was a wonderful guide. She was both informative and interesting, and made the Souzhou tour a wonderful experience. She topped it off with a tasteful lunch, an educational silk factory tour, and an authentic visit to the water towel with a gondola ride. We highly recommend this tour.
Review provided by Viator
Vacation14939812086
Nov 9, 2024
It was a good day spent on the road - We enjoyed the entire trip. Get ready for a lot of traffic coming and going out of Shanghai, but it’s a good way to see rural China in the eyes of the water village.
We felt the trip was well planned with a lot of things to see on Suzhou, the garden is incredible and the silk museum is worth it to learn some silk making and buy some real silk products.
Our guide Elena was with us the whole time explaining about history and sights we were seeing.
Lunch was actually good, would prefer to have it in the water village though.
We wish we had more time to spend in the water village.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Charjimkeeton
Sep 29, 2024
Very nice day - Water village was very good. A little more time to explore the site would have been nice. The guide could have provided a little more information and spoken a little louder. Overall, a very good experience, and recommended.
Review provided by Viator
Rick_y
Jun 10, 2024
Great day trip out of Shanghai - Despite the dreary weather, my family had a great day trip out of Shanghai to check out these two spots. Our guide was quite knowledgeable and shared interesting stories about everything we saw. Besides the sights, we were also brought to a silk factory where we learnt about the process of making silk products. Also included was an authentic Suzhou-style meal.
Review provided by Viator
Claire_h
Jun 23, 2024
water village was the highlight of my stay in China - It was great to get away from the glass and steel towers of Shanghai and see the real beauty of Chinese gardens. The highlight was the water village, despite being busy it still felt peaceful and unspoiled.
Review provided by Viator
Juliechand
Jun 25, 2025
Not so great tour - Well the water village was pretty but a tour is enjoyable only when the tour guide is interested enough to show you around and give some info about the places and not just answer to the point. Our tour guide Elena was silent most of the Time , not interested to show much and did not give us time to spend at any of the places. Do not recommend this tour or the tour company. No response in anything.
Review provided by Viator
Zoltán
Mar 3, 2025
Trip to Suzhou and water village - That was a bad decision. The tour guide didn't even introduce himself, he was like a military officer. The Suzhou program was quite incomprehensible. Lunch is a disaster. There were plenty of nice restaurants in the water village, it wouldn't have been more expensive, but even in Suzhou they took me to a restaurant on the ground floor of a block of flats. The guide wasn't even willing to ask for a beer - we pay for it, of course - but he didn't offer language help either. I do not recommend this service at all!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Nicholashn6346eg
Jan 10, 2025
Refused refund - I don't know how the trip was exactly because the tour operator refused to pick me up from my hotel.
I was not informed that they wouldn't service my hotel, which is on the way from shanghai to the first destination, until the night before I was booked to go, meaning that I was unable to cancel my booking through trip advisor and get a refund. I believe they must do this on purpose in order to catch people out.
They also were dishonest to me and said it was impossible for them to cancel the booking on their end. I went through tripadvisor customer service and they contacted the operator who refused to give a refund. So they lied, they could absolutely give a refund, they just didnt want to. Very unprofessional.
Maybe some people get lucky and it all works out with this operator, but I would not trust them.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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