7 Days in Jiaxing

The lake island took shape in 1548, when dredged silt was piled up for Yanyu Tower. The wooden boat tied to the closing of the 1921 congress rests beside the island, and the Memorial Hall founded in 1959 presents the documented record.

1. jiaxing south lake
2. jiaxing nanhu memorial hall

Zicheng preserves the core of a walled town first raised in 231 AD under the Wu kingdom; Yuehe rebuilds canal-house lanes along the moat, and the city museum ties the story together.

1. jiaxing zicheng park
2. jiaxing yuehe old street
3. jiaxing museum

The Majiabang culture, named for the site excavated from 1959, reaches back some 7,000 years — rice husks pressed into its pottery are among the lower Yangtze's oldest known.

1. jiaxing majiabang museum
2. jiaxing museum

An honest county note — Wuzhen lies in Tongxiang, a county-level city under Jiaxing. The HSR from Jiaxing South takes about 15 minutes to Tongxiang, then 20 minutes by shuttle to the water town's Xizha gate.

1. wuzhen xizha

Another county under Jiaxing — Xitang in Jiashan, about 30 km northeast, holds a kilometer of covered riverside corridors behind its 95-yuan ticket, best entered as the lamps come on.

1. xitang

Haining runs its bore twice a day all year; the calendar peak falls around the lunar eighth month's eighteenth day, usually late September or early October, when the straight-line tide crosses as a single wall. The Qing-era sea-god temple sits beside the park.

1. jiaxing yanguan tide park

An honestly labelled neighbour day — Shanghai is a separate municipality about 30 minutes east by HSR. Walk the Bund and Nanjing Road, then return for a late train from Jiaxing South.

1. shanghai the bund