Tongli Watertown « China Travel Tips

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How to Visit Tongli Town (Tips, Photos & Map)

Tuesday, January 11th, 2022

Dear Travellers,

We’d like to have the following travel guide to be always updated for the benefit of new visitors Visiting Tongli Ancient Town from Suzhou. If anybody having used the piece finds necessary updates, please leave a message or feedback. Thanks!

ABC of Tongli Town

The Tongli Ancient Town has a history of over 1000 years, a typical water town in the Yangzte River area. The ancient town is scenic enough to be surrounded by waters. The town is cut into 7 islands by 15 canals which are linked by 45 bridges. It is reputed as “the Venice of the East”.

In 1997 and 2000, eight of the finest gardens in Suzhou along with the ancient water town of Tongli were selected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site to represent the art of Suzhou-style classical gardening.

Location of Tongli Ancient Town

If you plan Suzhou tour, don’t miss a side trip to Tongli. Tongli Town (同里）is one of the famous ancient water towns in the Yangtze River Delta, which are specifically scattered around the large river and crisscross the triangle area of Suzhou, Huzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai.

Under the administration of Wujiang District in Suzhou, Tongli Town is located 30km to the southeast of the downtown Suzhou, one and half hour from Hangzhou and one and half hour from Shanghai by road.

How to Get to Tongli Town

When you visit Suzhou, Shanghai or Hangzhou, you may have a side trip to Tongli Town. Of course, having an excursion from Suzhou to Tongli is the most convenient by bus, subway or by taxi.

For me, the best way to travel from Suzhou to Tongli is to take subway. You can take subway line 4 from Suzhou Railway Station and get off at the last station of Tongli ( 同里). The subway ride takes about 50 minutes.

Suzhou to Tongli Water Town

You have three choices to go from Tongli Subway Station to Tongli Town:
1) You exit from the Exit 10 where you can connect the special shuttles going to Tongli water town (Non-stop);
2) You exit from Exit 02 where you take the Bus 725 for Tongli ( 4 stops );
3) You can also take a taxi from Tongli Subway Station to Tongli Town: 5 km and about 20 yuan.

Subway Line 4 from Suhzhou Railway Station to Tongli

Shanghai to Tongli Town

For a long-distance bus from Shanghai to Tongli Town, you may take the bus either from Shanghai Sightseeing Bus Center (Shanghai Stadium) leaving at 9:30am or Shanghai Long-distance Bus Station (Zhongxing Road) every leaving every half hour.

Hangzhou to Tongli Ancient Town

For the public transportation from Hangzhou to Tongli Town, you should go to Hangzhou North Bus Station for an hourly bus ride to Tongli.

Entrance fee: RMB 100 (combined tickets)
Opening Hour:
07:30-17:30 (May-October)
07:30-17:15 (November-April)
Enquiry: 0512-800882990
Complaint: 0512-63321999
Emergency: 0512-63320995

Virtual Tour of Tongli Water Town

Just follow us to have a virtual tour of Tongli Ancient Town. A bunch of the ancient buildings in Ming and Qing dynasties are well-preserved and open to the public including Retreat and Refection Garden, Pearl Pagoda, Chongben Hall, Genhle Hall, Chen Qubing’s former residence, Wang Shaoao’s Memorial Museum and Songshiwu Garden.

The ancient water town is mainly composed of canals, roads, bridges, residences and gardens where you will be lost in the beautiful view.

You can take the clean energy vehicles at 5 yuan for an easy ride taking you to the entrance from the ticketing office.

Tongli Tourist Information Center and ticketing Office

Each ticket allows visitors to have access to the 10 major pay attractions within the Tongli Town.

If you want to learn more about the town’s history and anecdotes behind, you can hire a local English-speaking tour guide rated RMB 120 per group.

I didn’t use the green energy vehicle in the scenery and I loved to have the half an hour stroll to get to the main entrance to Tongli Ancient Town. On the way, you can easily spot some road signs leading you to the old town.

The road signs leading you to the old town (Old Town Sightseeing Zone)

About half an hour walk from the ticketing office takes me to the street leading to the decorated archway entrance to the ancient town. The street is lined with shops selling local products and restaurants offering the local snacks and dishes.

An old bridge straddles a canal with a decorated archway. The local residents live a slow life, fishing, drinking, reading and the list could be much longer.