Visiting Jinxi Ancient Water Town In China (锦溪古镇)

Jinxi is one of the lesser known water towns in China. It is less than 100 km northwest of Shanghai, part of Suzhou City, making it one of the most accessible water towns to visit. It is next to the Chenmudang water body which flows into Dianshan Lake

On one of our Photoparadise photo tours to China, we decided to use Jinxi as the starting point specifically because of its close proximity to Shanghai while also creating a great photo opportunity for the first night of our tour. We wanted a place close to Shanghai because some members of the group only arrived late afternoon in Shanghai. We needed a place to stay within about 3 hour’s drive from the city centre (taking peak traffic into account).

Being lesser known, we were the only photographers in the town (arriving on Friday evening with the plan to leave the Saturday around midday) which is a rare sighting in modern China.

On our way to Jinxi, we first stopped for dinner resulting in us arriving at Jinxi just after sunset (in the rain).

On arrival at Jinxi, we were welcomed by the sight of the well-known traditional Chinese bridge lit up against the dim light of the early evening.

Being dedicated photographers, the light drizzle did not stop us from making use of the dark and wet situation to create some special moody photographs before retiring to bed.

We slept in a hotel in one of the old buildings right on the water’s edge. The name of the hotel is 燕月楼 which roughly translates to “The moon swallow's tower”. Based on the fact that the name is written from right to left I deducted that this is a really old building which is still in a great shape!

The next morning most of us were up before sunrise (most likely as a result of the jetlag or maybe just the excitement of the beginning this adventure) to explore the village with our cameras.

It was interesting to see that the villagers were obviously used to getting many tourists over weekends as everybody was in a rush to get the village in a presentable manner before the people arrive. Some were sweeping the walkways, others were sweeping the waterways while other was just busy with their daily chores like doing the washing.

All along the walkways, locals were busy erecting makeshift markets hoping to sell it to the tourists on arrival.

Fish Patterns - Details at the Saturday Street market in Jinxi Ancient Water Town

Fish Patterns - Details at the Saturday Street market in Jinxi Ancient Water Town

Like most of these water towns, it also features the typical gondoliers and at 9 am that morning when they opened for business, we made use of their service to take us on a waterway tour through the town. All the gondoliers in the town were ladies, all dressed up in a blue uniform with a pink headscarf (some with straw hats to shield against the sun).

The gondolas made great subjects in a travel photography portfolio.

All in all, we had a really good time in this little village and will most likely visit it again in the future.