Day Trips from Shanghai: Water Towns, Suzhou and Hangzhou Compared

If you have a spare day in Shanghai, pick the trip by what you want to see. For classical gardens and old canal streets, go to Suzhou. For lake and hill scenery, go to Hangzhou and West Lake. For a canal town with the least effort, go to Zhujiajiao, which you can reach on the Shanghai metro. If you want a canal town at night with the lanterns lit, go to Wuzhen or Xitang, and stay the night if you can. Suzhou and Hangzhou are both easy same-day returns by high-speed train. The rules that catch visitors are about booking: three of Suzhou's top gardens sell real-name tickets, and Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou needs a reservation made at least a day ahead. Below is how to choose, then how to do each trip.

How to choose your day out of Shanghai

Start from what your trip is missing, not from a ranking. If you have spent three days among Shanghai's towers, the gardens and lanes of Suzhou give you the old China that downtown Shanghai mostly lacks. If you want open space and views, West Lake in Hangzhou is the better day. If you only have half a day, or you are tired of train stations, Zhujiajiao is the one to pick, because the whole trip is on the metro, with one change at Hongqiao.

A "water town" (水乡, shuǐxiāng) is an old town built along canals, with stone bridges, houses that back onto the water and small boats. The region around Shanghai has many of them. They look alike in photos, and the real differences are how far away they are, whether you pay to get in, and whether they stay open at night. Zhujiajiao is the closest of the full-size water towns and free to walk into. Wuzhen and Xitang are prettier after dark but sit outside Shanghai, so they work best with an overnight stay. Qibao is inside the city and is more of an add-on than a day trip.

One thing that is not a day trip: Shanghai Disneyland. It is inside the city on the metro, and it takes a full day of its own. Our Shanghai Disneyland guide covers tickets and transport.

If you have two spare days, our suggestion is Suzhou on one and Hangzhou on the other, or Suzhou plus a night in Wuzhen. For a longer canal-town route that links several of these towns, see our Jiangnan water towns route. For what to do with your days inside the city, start with the Shanghai complete guide.

Zhujiajiao: the easiest water town

Zhujiajiao (朱家角) is a canal town in Shanghai's Qingpu district, and it is free to enter. The town has nine old streets along the water and 36 old bridges, and its best-known sights are North Street, Fangsheng Bridge (放生桥, "Bridge for Releasing Life", the largest five-arch stone bridge in East China), Kezhi Garden and the old Qing-dynasty post office. It is busy at weekends, but the side lanes away from the main bridge stay quiet. Half a day is enough for most people.

Getting there on Line 17

Metro Line 17 runs straight from Hongqiao Railway Station to Zhujiajiao station, and the fare is 6 yuan. Trains run about every 10 minutes and the ride takes roughly 40 minutes; the last train back from Zhujiajiao toward Hongqiao Railway Station leaves at 22:41 on the Shanghai Metro timetable. From central Shanghai, take Line 2 or Line 10 to Hongqiao Railway Station and change to Line 17 there. You can tap a foreign contactless Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB or UnionPay card on the gates, so you do not need to buy a ticket first. Our Shanghai metro map and route planner shows the change at Hongqiao, and the last-train page has the late-night times.

The station is about 1.3 km from the old town. From Exit 1 you can walk it (left onto Zhuxi Road, right onto Xiangningbang Road, then left onto Xinfeng Road). If you would rather not walk, two options leave from near the station:

• Bus 1510, the tourist shuttle, runs from outside Exit 1 to the town's visitor centre for 1 yuan, every 15–20 minutes in the morning and every 25–30 minutes after about 11:00.
• The direct shuttle boat goes from a pier near the station to Fangsheng Bridge for 40 yuan a ticket; it runs in the daytime, and the official site lists two different sets of hours, so check the board at the pier for the last boat.

There is also an express bus from People's Square to Zhujiajiao bus station, about once an hour for 12 yuan. It is a backup; Line 17 is simpler for a first visit.

What you pay for inside

Walking the streets and crossing the bridges costs nothing. Three sights inside charge entry: Kezhi Garden (20 yuan), Hexin Garden (30 yuan) and the Shanghai Helong Art Museum (20 yuan), or all three on a 60-yuan combo ticket. You can buy at the visitor centre or at each gate, and these paid sights open 8:30–17:00. If you book the combo online, you must order by 8:00 on the day and swap it for a paper ticket at the visitor centre at 555 Kezhiyuan Road between 8:30 and 15:00. For most visitors, Kezhi Garden alone is enough; the rest of the town is the main show.

The hand-rowed boats are priced per boat, not per person. A boat seats up to 6 people one way, and current routes cost 200 or 300 yuan per boat, with 100 yuan extra to come back to your starting pier. A solo traveller pays the full boat price, so a full boat of six on a 200-yuan route works out to about 33 yuan each. The 200-yuan rides last about 15 minutes and the 300-yuan rides about 20, ticket sales run 8:30–17:00, and babies count toward the six. Older price lists you may see online, including a "route C", are no longer in use; the official Zhujiajiao boat page has the current routes.

If your card is declined at a shop, the town has foreign-card service points that take UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, JCB and American Express, including the visitor centre (8:30–16:30) and two teahouses on North Street and Dongjing Street that stay open until 21:00.

A simple half day

Arrive mid-morning, walk in from the station or take the 1510 bus, and head first to Fangsheng Bridge before the tour groups fill it. Take a boat if you are a group of three or more. Walk North Street, then cross to Kezhi Garden for a quiet hour. Have lunch by the canal and ride Line 17 back in the afternoon. You can be in central Shanghai for dinner, or combine it with an evening flight from Hongqiao.

From July to October, check the news on the official site before you go. The whole scenic area closes during typhoons; it shut on 24 October 2026 and reopened the next day, and combo tickets bought online could be refunded on the platform you bought them from.

Suzhou: gardens and old streets

Suzhou is the classic day trip from Shanghai, and the train makes it easy. The part that needs a little planning is the garden tickets.

Getting there

Suzhou has two main stations. Suzhou Railway Station sits on the north edge of the old city, on metro Lines 2 and 4. Suzhou North is about 10 km out and connects to the city on Line 2. For gardens and old streets, book to Suzhou Railway Station.

Trains on this corridor run all day. On one sample travel day (Tuesday 22 September 2026), the timetable lists about 50 trains from Shanghai Hongqiao to Suzhou Railway Station between 06:12 and 21:42, most taking 30–35 minutes, plus about 80 more from Shanghai Railway Station. Second-class fares are a few dozen yuan; check the exact fare for your train when you book. From the station, a taxi to the garden area is short; taxis in Suzhou start at 13 yuan for the first 3 km.

The garden ticket rule

Three gardens keep real-name tickets: the Humble Administrator's Garden (拙政园, Zhuōzhèng Yuán), the Lingering Garden and the Lion Grove Garden. Real-name means the ticket is tied to your ID, and for foreign visitors that currently means your passport. You can still buy a ticket on the day at the gate. If you book online, the ticket is only valid for the date you chose, and the booking channels include the official Suzhou garden platform and the overseas Trip.com app. In spring and autumn the Humble Administrator's Garden has the longest ticket queues, so booking a day or two ahead through Trip.com takes the worry out of it. Most of Suzhou's other gardens dropped the real-name rule, and foreign visitors can simply scan and buy.

Prices follow a peak and off-peak calendar. Peak months are April, May and July to October; January to March, June, November and December are off-peak. The Humble Administrator's Garden costs 80 yuan in peak months and 70 off-peak. The Lion Grove Garden costs 40 or 30 yuan, and the Lingering Garden 55 or 45 yuan. The garden bureau's official ticket price page lists them all. The Humble Administrator's Garden opens at 7:30; from March to October the last entry is 17:00, and from November to February it is 16:30.

The Suzhou Museum, next to the Humble Administrator's Garden, works differently. Every visit needs a real-name, timed reservation, which opens seven days ahead through the museum's website, WeChat account or WeChat mini-program; it is closed on Mondays except public holidays, and last entry is 16:00. Reserve as soon as you know your date, and if the form will not take a passport number, ask your hotel to help.

What to see in one day

Keep it to one area plus one street. The Humble Administrator's Garden, Lion Grove and the Suzhou Museum all sit together, and metro Line 6 has a station named after the garden and the museum, right outside the museum. Do the big garden first thing, when it is calmest, then the museum if you booked it. After lunch, walk to Pingjiang Road (平江路), a canal-side lane of old houses that is free and open all day. If you still have energy, add the Lingering Garden, which is further west and best reached by taxi. Take an early-evening train back.

From mid-October to mid-December, Suzhou is also the place for Yangcheng Lake hairy crab, which is at its best in those weeks. For more gardens, the night garden visits and where to stay, see our Suzhou garden city guide.

Hangzhou: West Lake in a day

Hangzhou is a little further than Suzhou, but still an easy day. West Lake itself is free: it has had no entry ticket since 2002, and the shore is an open park with no walls.

Getting there. Fast direct trains from Shanghai Hongqiao to Hangzhou East take about 45 minutes, most take 50–60, there are several an hour, and second class costs about 57–87 yuan depending on the train. From Hangzhou East, metro Line 1 reaches Longxiangqiao on the east shore of the lake in six stops. A few trains go to Hangzhou Railway Station (城站, Chéngzhàn, "the city station"), which is only two stops from the lake. Hangzhou West is far from the centre, so avoid it for a West Lake day.

A good single day. Spend the morning on the east and north shores. The Broken Bridge and Pinghu Qiuyue ("Autumn Moon on the Calm Lake") are open all day, and from the Broken Bridge you can walk out along the Bai Causeway across the lake. In the afternoon, choose one of two:

• Lingyin Temple and Feilai Peak. Entry has been free since 1 December 2025, but you must reserve a time slot in the "杭州灵隐飞来峰" (Hangzhou Lingyin Feilai Peak) mini-program inside Alipay or WeChat, at least one day ahead and up to seven days ahead; passports are accepted, and the site is open 7:30–17:30 with last entry at 17:00. Make this reservation the evening before at the latest. From the lake, a taxi or a bus gets you there; on weekends and short holidays from 08:00 to 17:00, taxis may not drive into the Lingyin area, and you change to a shuttle bus at the Xixi Road No. 608 car park or the Xiaoyawu bus stop, or ride the metro to stations such as Longxiangqiao and take a shuttle bus from there.
• Longjing tea village. The village and its tea terraces are open all day and free. It suits you better if you want a walk in the hills rather than a temple.

Our West Lake guide covers the causeways, boats and paid sights around the lake in detail, and the Hangzhou complete guide covers the rest of the city if you decide to stay a night.

Wuzhen, Xitang, Zhouzhuang, Tongli and Qibao

These are the canal towns for people who want more than Zhujiajiao. Wuzhen, Xitang, Zhouzhuang and Tongli all have ticketed entrances, and they differ mostly in how they feel after dark and how hard they are to reach.

Wuzhen: best with an overnight stay

Wuzhen (乌镇) is the most restored canal town in the region and has two separate ticketed zones: Dongzha (东栅, East Zone) costs 110 yuan, Xizha (西栅, West Zone) 150 yuan, and both together 190 yuan. Xizha is the evening zone, open 9:00–22:00. Day tickets are good for one entry on one day. If you stay at a hotel or guesthouse inside Xizha, you get a pass to come and go, and since 16 March 2025 the Xizha ticket is free for each guest who actually stays, at every hotel and guesthouse inside Xizha except the youth hostel; Dongzha stays separate. That is why one night there makes sense: you see the canals lit up at night and quiet in the early morning, and the room covers the entry. You can compare Xizha hotels and guesthouses on Booking.com; if you book through a third-party site, confirm with the property that the free Xizha entry applies to your booking. Check-in is from 15:00 and you show your passport.

To get there, take a high-speed train from Shanghai Hongqiao to Tongxiang, Wuzhen's nearest station, which takes about 40–47 minutes on most trains (sample day 22 September 2026). Between Tongxiang station and Wuzhen bus station, buses K282 and K281 run through the day, with the last daytime services around 17:05 and 17:40; at Wuzhen bus station you change to bus K350 for Xizha. There are also direct coaches between Xizha and Shanghai South Station, taking about 90 minutes for about 55 yuan, bookable in the 桐乡出行 (Tongxiang Travel) or 巴巴快巴 (Baba Kuaiba) WeChat mini-programs, where the day's departures are shown.

A day trip that includes Xizha after dark is possible. Night buses leave Xizha itself for Tongxiang station at 18:40, 19:30, 20:00 and 20:30, and on the sample day the last train from Tongxiang back to Shanghai Hongqiao leaves at 22:21. Buy that return train ticket in advance and catch a night bus no later than the last one, because missing it means a taxi. Staying the night is still the more relaxed way to do it.

Xitang: quicker to reach, livelier

Xitang (西塘) is less polished than Wuzhen and easier to reach. Trains from Shanghai Hongqiao to Jiashan South take about 23–33 minutes (sample day 22 September 2026). From Jiashan South, a tourist bus or bus K222 goes to the town, or a taxi takes about 20–30 minutes; buses are not frequent, so check the timetable at the station. Entry is a single ticket of 95 yuan covering 12 small sights. After you register your face at the gate, you can go in and out all day, and boat rides are paid separately. Ticket windows normally sell from 8:00 to 17:00, while the lanes themselves stay open; evening opening times are posted at the town, so confirm them on the day. If you want to see both towns, a shuttle runs from Wuzhen's Xizha to Xitang four times a day.

Zhouzhuang and Tongli: the Suzhou-side towns

Zhouzhuang (周庄) is one of the best-known canal towns. Since 9 July 2026, an 80-yuan ticket covers the town for three days in a row, and the town and its main houses stay open from 8:00 to 21:00. Getting there by public transport takes more steps: a train to Kunshan South, bus 133 to Zhouzhuang bus station, then bus 261 to the town gate. Check the bus times when you arrive at Kunshan South, as the official site does not list them.

Tongli (同里) is the easiest canal town to add to a Suzhou day. From Suzhou Railway Station, take metro Line 4 to Tongli, leave by Exit 9 and change to the T1 tram for the old town. The tram's last service is 19:15 on weekdays. The ticket, which includes Tuisi Garden, is 100 yuan on the day or 80 yuan if booked at least a day ahead on the official ticket platform. The advance ticket is scanned with a Chinese ID card at the gate, so with a passport, plan on the same-day ticket or confirm at the ticket window that you can exchange an advance booking.

Qibao: an hour, not a day

Qibao (七宝) is an old town inside Shanghai, on metro Line 9 at Qibao station. Its core is Qibao Old Street, it dates back to the Southern Song dynasty, and it is open all day. It is small and busy with snack stalls. Treat it as an hour or two on a light afternoon, not as your day out of the city.

The train part, briefly

All the train trips above leave from Shanghai Hongqiao or Shanghai Railway Station. These are the few things that matter for a day trip; the full walkthrough is in our train booking guide.

• Book with your passport. Tickets are real-name, and the 12306 app and website accept a foreign passport. The 12306 English website accepts only foreign passports. Your passport must show as verified before you can book online; you can upload a photo of it in 12306 or get it checked at a station ticket window. If you would rather book in English without setting up 12306, Trip.com sells the same trains.
• Use the staffed gate. Passport holders go through the staffed lane, not the automatic gates, both entering and leaving the station. Leave extra time for the queue at weekends.
• Buy your return ticket with your outbound ticket. Sales open 15 days ahead, including the day of travel. Morning trains out and early-evening trains back on weekends and holidays are the first to go, while midday trains rarely sell out.
• Changing plans. Each ticket can be changed once. Within 48 hours of departure you can switch for free to a train on or before your ticket date, and after missing your train you can switch for free to another train that same day. If you cancel instead, refunds cost 20% of the fare in the last 24 hours before departure.

If you would rather not handle any of the logistics, guided day tours from Shanghai to the water towns, Suzhou and Hangzhou are listed on GetYourGuide, many with hotel pickup.

Last updated: November 2026