Also worth a visit

China boasts several other elegant river towns, of which Zhouzhuang, Luzhi, Tongli and Xitang are the best-known.

Of the four, Zhouzhuang was the first to get famous. In October 1984, the late Chinese painter Chen Yifei had 38 paintings exhibited in New York. One depicting the bridges in Zhouzhuang was purchased by Armand Hammer, chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation. When Hammer visited China a month later, he gave the painting to Deng Xiaoping as a gift. Zhouzhuang thus became a tourist destination overnight.

Zhouzhuang is a small town you can walk around inside a day. While the city of Suzhou 40 kilometers away has developed into a modern metropolis, 900-year-old Zhouzhuang still has well-preserved ancient homes, mainly built during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.