Oblivious to Where I'm Going: Day Trip from Shanghai to Qipao Ancient Town and Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

Friday 16 February 2024

Day Trip from Shanghai to Qipao Ancient Town and Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

With the power of wikitravel my trusted guide, I decided to take on the daytrip to Qipao Ancient Town and Zhujiajiao Ancient Town which was way far out of Shanghai downtown. It was a long ride to Qipao Ancient Town via the Shanghai Metro and in a sense the ride felt like I was now part of the local daily commute.

Just to have an Idea, you can see from the cut out map below. Shanghai downtown and greater area encompas the big purple circle. Just getting around the circle area would require the metro and bus or even a taxi and easily takes anything from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. Qipao was further to the west and Zhujiajiao even more. Its a proper daytrip alright with transportation to and fro Shanghai taking up a good portion of the time.

Qibao & Zhujiajiao Ancient Town from Shanghai Downtown

Qipao Ancient Town was a quint little go back in time nostalgia type of tourist trap. It felt touristy for it was I was still climatizing to what is the norm in China. Thinking back, this was rather mellow with the tourist comprising of locals with barely any international tourist. The place had little signs of daily life which makes it really authentic in China instead of those artificial built up traps. One just somehow need to make a wrong turn out of the well marked tourist path.

Qipao Ancient Town Entrance

Qipao Ancient Town - Souvenir & Trinkets Shop

Qipao Ancient Town - Tourist Street

I find Qipao more interesting than Yuyuan Old Town in Shanghai which feels totally destroyed of life. In Yuyuan, the buildings are old, the architecture are genuine but the people felt gone. Qipao felt more authentic but craftily designed to funnel the mainstream tourist crowd through the little shops for some suvinours.

A Turn off the Tourist Street in Qipao Ancient Town

Small Guide Map of Qipao Ancient Town

A Little Turn away from the Tourist Street, Quiet pace of local life - Qipao Ancient Town

Qipao Ancient Town

After Qipao, I made my way to Zhujiajiao Ancient Town. AMAP really help me this round in navigating the local way and instead of backtracking the metro line to downtown Shanghai to change to the Zhujiajiao line, I took the metro to Dongjing Station. From there, somehow find the 1 hour bus shuttle to Zhujiajiao and this time I had to asked since the bus had no number but pure written wordings.

The fringe of Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

Zhujiajiao was even quieter than Qipao, but maybe it was because I was there late evening. This place felt similar to Qipao. Tourist footpath with lots of instagramable things to see and buy, side path to get lost and explore the mundane life of the locals still living in the old building just minding their own stuff watching TV. I was there during the sunset hour and it was a beautiful view.