Sunday, May 07, 2017

Day 6 - Nanjing/Hangzhou Trip 2017- Wuzhen Part 1 - How to go to Wuzhen Water Town from Hangzhou by public transport

Wuzhen is one of the six famous ancient water towns south of the Yangtze River. It really was very beautiful and worth making a day trip there.

Last year, I missed going to Tongli Water Town when I was in Suzhou cause I fall sick and ended up visiting a doctor in Suzhou, sigh. This time round, I had to visit Wuzhen another famous watertown.

From our hotel, we took the metro to Hangzhou Passenger Transport Center Metro Staton (RMB5). It was super easy to go to Wuzhen by public transport.

Once out of the metro, we exited to EXIT A.

There's were a lot of security checks at EXIT A, only people with ID (Identification Card or passports) are allowed to go through EXIT A towards the Passenger Transport Center (Bus station for long distance bus to other cities in China). We two old folks were forever clumsy and blur hahaha, we left our original passports in our hotel safe. Luckily we had photocopy of our passports in our bags, we showed the security officers, wow, they allowed us in when we told them we are Singaporeans and left our passports in the hotel. I dreaded having to go back to our hotel to get our passports at this point.

Once out of the metro station EXIT A, we could see Macdonald Restaurant, walked towards the entrance of the building (the entrance beside Macdonald).

Go to Level 2 for the ticket office.

To purchase the bus tickets, they needed our passports, so had to explain the same situation to them that we left our passports in the hotel, so luckily they accepted our photocopy of our passports and issued us the tickets. The ticket costs RMB31 per adult (including insurance). The ticket will have the gate no., seat no, bus no. , time of departure printed on it.

After buying the tickets, walked to the security check on the same floor, need our passports too for verification and also luckily they allowed us in after hearing our same story hahaha and this time round, we showed them the bus tickets too. So our problem solved, we are now able to make our way to the gate to board the bus.

There's a few restaurants, cafe inside the station and a convenience store. There's also hot/cold water dispensers for passengers to fill their water bottle/flask, free to use.

Looked out for the gate no, the bus no, time of departure to board the bus. You need to show your ticket before boarding the bus. Nothing will go wrong at this point. Guess it wasn't a weekend/public holiday, we did not buy the bus tickets in advance and the bus was not full and we dont have to wait for a long time. The bus depart every 30 minutes and the journey from Hangzhou Passenger Transport Centre to Wuzhen is about 1 hour and 10 mins. The last bus from Wuzhen back to hangzhou is about 6.30 pm (not sure if this is accurate, do double check with the ticket office staff). The bus will not stop anywhere, will go directly to Wuzhen. The route back from Wuzhen to Hangzhou will be same.

Sit according to the seat number indicated in the bus ticket, keep the bus ticket till end of your day trip. The seats were very comfortable and could be reclined (but not fully flat hahaha).

After one hour and 10 minutes, we reached Wuzhen Bus Station, a very small bus station.

The bus that we took, very new and comfortable.

After alighting from the bus, followed the sign for Bus K350 to go to Wuzhen watertown. Wuzhen watertown consists of the East Area (Dong Zha/dong jaa/ 东栅) and West Area (Xi Zha /sshee jaa/ 西栅) , there will be few bus stops before reaching the water town, the bus will stop at west first and then east. It is possible to go both west and east but the west seems to be better. The West Area offers a much better experience than East Area. You will find the East Area is interesting, but West Area is positively charming. (Source: chinahighlight). For those who wish to visit the west and east, visit the west first, since the bus stop at the west area first, then after visiting the west, take free shuttle bus to go from west area to east area (the bus stop is the same bus stop that we alighted for K350). There will be both English and Chinese announcement for the bus stops to alight.

The bus frequency for K350 is every 10 minutes and the fare is only RMB2.

Entrance fee for Wuzhen Watertown is RMB120 for the west area and RMB100 for the east area and RMB150 for combo tickets.No special discount for above 60 years old.

More about Wuzhen in next post.

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