Zhouzhuang is under the jurisdiction of Kunshan City of Jiangsu Province. The town is situated between two provinces (Jiangsu and Shanghai) and three districts (Wujiang, Wuxian, and Qingpu). It covers an area of 38.96 square kilometers, in which water area amounts to 18.16 square kilometers. Located on the Taihu Lake Plain of the Yangtze River Delta, Zhouzhuang features a low-lying terrain and densely interwoven watercourses. In the Spring and Autumn Period, it was a fiefdom of Yao, the youngest prince of Wu State, and was named “Zhenfengli.” In the first year of the Yuanyou era in the Northern Song Dynasty (1086), it was renamed as Zhouzhuang due to the fact that a native with the surname Zhou, who then was the courtier responsible for personnel selection and evaluation, donated a piece of land to build the Quanfu Temple. In the late 1980s, tourism started to grow in the town. It is one of the first batch of 5A-level scenic sites in China and is known as “No. 1 Water Town in China.”
In the autumn of the first year of the Yongning era in the Western Jin Dynasty (301), the famous scholar Zhang Han, serving as a government official in Luoyang, was triggered by the beautiful view and started to miss water bamboo shoots, water shield soup, and minced perch meat. These were local delicacies of his hometown Wu County which was thousands of miles away in the south of the Yangtze River. Motivated by homesickness, he wrote the poem “Missing Wujiang:” “The autumn wind rustles the trees and their leaves; in the water of Wujiang perches are fat and tasty. My home is three thousand miles away, I turn my eyes up to the sky and mourn since I can’t yet go back.” According to historical records, Zhang Han said at that moment: “It is wise to set an achievable aim in one’s life; why shall I travel afar and be an official elsewhere for fame and title?” The man longed for spiritual freedom so much that he later submitted his resignation and returned home. Zhang often wandered and went fishing by Nanhu Lake. His spontaneity resulted in the widely known story about “missing water shields and perches” (connotating “having the intention of retiring from office and going back home”) in Chinese history. In the Tang Dynasty, the great man of letters Liu Yuxi came to Zhouzhuang and took temporary residence at the Qingyuan Temple by Nanhu Lake. During his stay, Liu Yuxi “leisurely appreciated the view featuring misty waves.” Zhang Han must have never thought of the place where he chose to live as a hermit and Liu Yuxi enjoyed the view would become somewhere people all dream to visit.
Zhouzhuang is located at the spot where five lakes meet. Jishuigang River in the north of the town strings up the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi. It is a haven for ships passing by and offer them necessary supplies. Zhouzhuang owes much to this watercourse for its prosperity. As Zhen Feng Ni Cheng (a book of local chronicles) compiled during Emperor Jiaqing’s reign of the Qing Dynasty recorded, Baixianjiang River (Jishuigang River) running through Zhouzhuang was “formerly known as Dongjiang River, one of the main drainage channels for Taihu Lake, via which the water in Taihu Lake flows into Dianshanhu Lake.”
In 1974, Professor Tan Qixiang of the Institute of Chinese Historical Geography of Fudan University, conducted a field research and concluded that among the “three rivers” (Wusongjiang River, Loujiang River and Dongjiang River) dug by Da Yu when he practiced water control at Taihu Lake, the old course of Dongjiang River is at the bottom of Baixianjiang River, since there is a deep channel at the lakebed running from the east to the west with a width of 20 to 30 meters and a depth of over 10 meters. The old Dongjiang River flows out of Taihu Lake, intersects with the Grand Canal and finally winds northeastward into the sea via Liuhe River. It has been an important floodway and shipping route since ancient times. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Liuhe Port was a major port for international trade, while Dongjiang River was the key connecting waterway between the Taihu Lake basin and the Liuhe Port. In the first year of the Zhishun era of the Yuan Dynasty (1330), Shen Wansan and his father Shen You moved from Nanxun of Huzhou to Zhouzhuang. They first made their living by doing farm work. Later they took advantage of Dongjiang River and began to engage in foreign trade. The father and son soon became the richest persons in the area south of the Yangtze River. They were called “God of Wealth” by later generations. Due to Shen Wansan’s influence, Zhouzhuang’s population gradually increased, and the place grew into a market town. In the early Ming Dynasty, it was formally named Zhouzhuang.
Outside Zhouzhuang was a ring of lakes, while inside the town was a network of rivers which took the form of the Chinese character “井” (meaning “a well”). Most streets and roads adhered to rivers. Water played an important role in the town’s formation and prosperity. The economy of the surrounding rural areas benefited from it as well. Zhouzhuang thus grew into the center of handicrafts and commodity distribution in this area. Its major trades inolved grain, cotton cloth, bamboo and wooden wares, and aquatic products. Shops were great in number in Zhongshi Street, Beishi Street, Chenghuangdai Street and Hougang Street. This thriving water town remained so until the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan in the 1930s. As the Qing Dynasty approached its end, anti-Qing revolutionary movements surged. Zhouzhuang was a key base for Nanshe (the Southern Society), a modern revolutionary literary group. Liu Yazi, Chen Qubing and other members of the Southern Society chanted poems and created lyrics here. The elegant gatherings of these intellectuals at Milou Hall, known as “Mi Lou Ya Ji,” became a grand cultural event in those days.
At the time when New China was founded, Zhouzhuang sank into isolation and silence due to damage caused by the war and inconvenient transportation. It was neglected by the outside world until the late 1970s when an old photo brought the attention of Yang Mingyi, a painter in Suzhou, to the town. To the painter, Zhouzhuang was elegant, simple, serene and subtle. It was characteristic of the town style popular in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China period. As one advanced, each step presented a fresh view in front of him. The pattern of a classic water town was preserved in its entity. All these features jointly gave Yang Mingyi such a pleasant surprise that he spread the news about his discovery of Zhouzhuang in the circles of painters and calligraphers. He wrote letters to the painters he admired such as Wu Guanzhong and Hua Junwu as well as his close friend Chen Yifei. In 1983, Chen Yifei, who then studied in US, finished a series of paintings featuring Zhouzhuang’s water town scenery, including “Memory of My Hometown.” In 1984, Armand Hammer, the chairman of Occidental Petroleum Company in America, visited China and presented this work as a gift to Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China’s reform and opening-up. Later, it was chosen as a pattern for the first-day covers of UN’s International Stamp Festival. The media’s publicity helped build a reputation for the ancient Zhouzhuang at home and abroad.
In the summer of 1986, when Shen’s House was under repair, Professor Ruan Yisan of Tongji University paid a visit to Zhouzhuang. Prof. Ruan, with his team of forty to fifty students from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University, conducted a thorough survey over the entire town area of Zhouzhuang. A few months later, Prof. Ruan presented another blueprint to the townspeople — an overall development plan for Zhouzhuang. There were three circles in the blueprint, indicating the old town area, a new town, and an industrial park. An area of 0.47 square kilometer was the conservation area for the old town. This protective plan pinned down the development guideline for Zhouzhuang: “protecting the old town, building a new town, developing local economy, and opening up to tourism.” The new town and the old town area have their independent functions. The layout set aside an area as the natural link-up spot for the transition between the new and old towns. This plan gave sufficient consideration not only to the protection of the traditional style and folk customs of the ancient town, but also to the demands of further social and economic development.
Shen’s House was officially opened to the public on April 1, 1989 when its renovation work was completed. The sale of its first ticket with the face value of 60 cents marked that Zhouzhuang’s tourism got on the track. Later, three more scenic spots started to receive visitors, namely Zhang’s House, the Milou Tower and the former residence of Ye Chucang. The number of visitors to the town has had a constant increase since then.
In 1995, Zhouzhuang started to issue a combined ticket which covered admissions to all the scenic spots within the town area, which was the first of its kind in China. Furthermore, the ancient town used the brand name “No. 1 Water Town in China” to promote itself to foreign and domestic visitors. This practice introduced a new approach for the development of tourist industry. The year of 1996 witnessed Zhouzhuang take the lead in holding the China Zhouzhuang International Tourism Festival sponsored by the National Tourism Administration, which became an annual event thereafter. During the period from 1995 to 2005, the town experienced a tourism-oriented development. Its practice of integration of local customs, water-town life style, and traditional culture into tourism set the trend in the type of tourism appropriate for water towns in the area south of the Yangtze River. Zhouzhuang thus became a renowned tourist attraction at home and abroad.
After a decade’s protection and development, Zhouzhuang’s tourist industry boomed far beyond people’s expectation. In 1999, Zhouzhuang received 1.25 million domestic and foreign visitors. The figure exceeded 2 million in 2001 and 3 million in 2006. The number of visitors every day far exceeded the designed daily carrying capacity of 6,000 people, which imposed immense pressure on the town and to some extent, spoiled the cultural atmosphere of this delicate water town. Soon after, Zhouzhuang sank into a crisis in February 2005 when a summit meeting of the Tourism Alliance was held in Zhouzhuang with a focus on cooperation. The price rise in Zhouzhuang’s admission ticket from 60 to 100 yuan aroused dissatisfaction among the travel agencies attending the meeting. They voiced criticisms about Zhouzhuang’s over-commercialization and insufficient protection of the old town area. These agencies soon made the decision not to recommend Zhouzhuang to their clients and collectively “blocked” Zhouzhuang.
This crisis proved to be a turning point in the development of Zhouzhuang’s tourist industry. The local government introduced a ten-year promotion strategy in 2005, which proposed the transformation and upgrading of three major industries for the town, namely tourism, high-tech manufacturing and cultural innovation. The intention was to build the town into an internationally renowned town for its culture, sightseeing and innovation. In terms of design of tourism products, the focus was on “antiquity”, “night” and “water.” Accordingly, a variety of tourism products were launched, including tours along lanes and rivers, circular tours by water around the ancient town, theme tours about the wealthy man Shen Wansan’s life, tours centring on romantic wedding ceremonies, and tours involving picking pearls, etc. These newly designed ancient-town-oriented tours sufficiently considered the six sightseeing elements: food, residence, transportation, trips, shopping and entertainment. Furthermore, a batch of performances and entertainment projects were launched as well, among which the live show “Zhouzhuang in Four Seasons” and Kunqu performances are signature ones.
Zhouzhuang’s tourism have extended from the ancient town area to the surrounding countryside. New tourism products focusing on agritainment and life in homestay inns have been put forward. As a result, supporting businesses, hotels and leisure-oriented projects have been launched as well. The tourism in Zhouzhuang has grown from a one-sided industry to a comprehensive one with a turn to leisure vacations. Integrating with the tourist industry, Zhouzhuang has started to develop its cultural and creative industry. The town now serves as a sketching base for eight major academies of fine arts in the country, which accommodates the industry chain for artistic works with the help of such carriers as the painters’ village, the painting mill, and the International Artwork Expo Centre. Zhouzhuang has now grown into the largest production, exhibition and trade centre of artwork in East China. In addition, a cluster of cultural projects have been formed in the town, including the Design and Incubation Centre, Fugui Garden, Jiangnan Inn, and Aidu Town which is the first nostalgic Taiwanese-style-street in Mainland China. The cluster has contributed significantly to the growth of the local industry chain of innovative design, by having attracted quiet a few prestigious domestic and foreign design institutions engaged in such fields as industrial design, animation design, architectural design, and graphic design, etc.
Zhouzhuang is a precious historical treasure to modern China. As the master architect I.M. Pei once commented, “Zhouzhuang is a national treasure.” The town is a classic case of water towns in the southern area of the Yangtze River, and an embodiment of the culture unique to this area. It also helps to showcase China’s history and culture to the world. In the eyes of visitors from other places, the town is the best real-life expression of the classic beauty depicted in traditional Chinese paintings. To those who take residence in bustling cities, it is a wonderland they dream to stay in. For the townspeople whose life has been increasingly modernized, it is a reminder of their old homes. Zhouzhuang provides a “spiritual home” to every modern soul, allowing them to reminisce about the “hometown in memory.” Zhouzhuang is the “hometown elsewhere” for anyone who is away from home.
