Luzhi Ancient Town

Luzhi Ancient Town is located 25 kilometers southeast of Suzhou City. It does not have as many tourists as other popular water towns. It is suitable for a casual stroll on weekends, crossing the several three-step two-bridges (i.e. double bridges) in the "Bridge Capital", looking at the white-walled and black-tiled buildings by the river, and looking for the place where the story of "Three or Five More Bushels" in the middle school Chinese textbook took place. The ancient town of Luzhi was originally named Fuli because of the "Fulitang" in the west of the town. Later, because there was a Zhigang in the east of the town, which led to six places and the shape of the water flow resembled the Chinese character "Lu", it was renamed "Luzhi". The ancient town is the same age as the ancient city of Suzhou, with a history of more than 2,500 years, much older than Zhouzhuang and Tongli Ancient Towns in Suzhou. If you want to buy a Combo Ticket for small attractions, you can enter from the main gate of Luzhi Ancient Town on Xiaoshi Road, where the ticket office is. If you don't buy tickets, you can enter the ancient town from any road. Because the ancient town is not big, there is only one main street - Nanshi Shangtang Street - Nanshi Xiatang Street. No matter where you enter, you have to walk to the main street running north and south. The attractions are mainly on both sides of the main street. To the west of the northern section of the main street is the Xiao residence, which was built during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty; to the east is a memorial hall with the architectural style of the Qing Dynasty; to the west of the middle section of the main street is the Baosheng Temple, and to the south of the temple is the Shen residence, a Qing Dynasty mansion that is very large even though only part of the area is open. To the east of the middle section of the main street is the newly built Jiangnan Cultural Park, where the Luzhi Historical Relics Museum, which displays cultural relics unearthed from the Chenghu Ruins, confirms the long history of Luzhi. The Luzhi Water Village Women's Clothing Museum displays unique Luzhi women's clothing such as headscarves and clothes spliced with blue printed cloth. Located in the center of the town, near the northwest corner of the Jiangnan Cultural Park are the Sanyuan Bridge and Wan'an Bridge, which represent the three-step two-bridge in the ancient town. At the southern end of the main street is the Wansheng Rice Shop (Luzhi Water Village Agricultural Tools Museum), which was renovated according to the article, restoring the layout of the rice shop and exhibiting various agricultural tools. Baosheng Temple is a worthwhile attraction in the ancient town. It was built in the second year of Liang Tianjian (503 AD) and has a history of more than 1,500 years. The nine clay sculptures of Luohan made by famous Tang Dynasty artists in the temple's antique museum are very precious. Unlike other temples where Luohan are lined up on both sides of the hall without a background, the Luohan here are doing their own things in front of the landscape sculpture background, vivid and lifelike. To the west of Baosheng Temple is the ancestral temple of the late Tang poet. If you want to take a boat tour of the ancient town, there is a Cruise dock 100 meters east of the ticket office of the ancient town. Each boat costs 150 yuan, and it takes about 30 minutes to take 4 people. Please note that the Cruise needs to be paid for one boat, which is 150 yuan. There are no individual tickets. You can find other tourists to share the boat and share the boat fee with everyone. There are many tourists in ancient costumes taking photos in the ancient town, and you can also pay to join the ranks of ancient costume photography. If you want to taste the delicacies of the ancient town, you can go to the fork in the south section of the main street - Xihui Shangtang Street and Xihui Xiatang Street along the river. There are many shops there, and you can eat special delicacies such as Fuli pig's trotters, Fuli duck, and Aozao noodles. After September, fresh star aniseed red water chestnuts will be available in Luzhi Ancient Town. If you want to buy specialties, you can choose Luzhi dried radish, and the small round ones are especially good. There are accommodations in Luzhi Ancient Town, but since you can return to Suzhou and Shanghai on the same day after visiting the ancient town, it is not necessary to stay. If you want to stay, I recommend the Composition Museum, which displays reading tables and chairs, as well as old composition books and newspapers. Compositions are posted everywhere on the wall because it has a strong book fragrance.