Things to do in Huzhou
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Huzhou
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Spring is the best all round window, mild weather, new bamboo shoots and tea picking season.
May Day week spikes prices and crowds, and the calm that makes Huzhou worth it evaporates.
Summer is the mountain season, drifting rivers open and lotus blooms, while the city and Nanxun are hot and humid.
Peak lotus bloom fills Xiaolian Zhuang and Lianhua Zhuang.
Autumn is the food peak, with Taihu hairy crab season and Feiying Park's golden ginkgo in November.
Golden Week at the start of October is the one crowded, expensive week to avoid.
Winter is quiet and cheap, with misty canals, but drifting is closed and days are short.
What's on
- Xinshi Silkworm Flower Festival Early April, around Qingming
Centuries old sericulture festival in Xinshi Ancient Town, Deqing, with silk flower maiden parades.
- Anji White Tea Harvest April
Tea picking and pan firing season across Anji county, with farm stays offering harvest experiences.
- Moganshan Firefly Season June to August
Fireflies fill the bamboo forests at night, with Xiantan, Biwu Longtan and Houwu named viewing spots.
- Lotus Season in Nanxun and Huzhou July peak bloom
Lotus fills the ponds at Xiaolian Zhuang in Nanxun and Lianhua Zhuang in the old city.
- Taihu Hairy Crab Season October to November
The best weeks for a Fisherman's Wharf banquet, when crab joins the Three Whites on the table.
- Huzhou Ink Brush Festival Annual, dates vary by year
Shanlian's festival honouring Meng Tian, the traditional patron of the Hubi brush.
Best things to do in Huzhou
Nanxun Ancient Town
The most refined of the Jiangnan water towns, where silk merchants built Chinese courtyards with European ballrooms.
Xiaolian Zhuang
Liu Yong's private garden centred on a great lotus pond, calm and enclosed ten steps from the canal crowds.
Zhang Shiming Former Residence
The grandest mansion in Jiangnan, where Chinese carving shares rooms with French glass and a Western ballroom.
Baijian Lou
A 400 metre run of Ming and Qing riverside houses where residents still live, best walked at dawn.
Jiaye Library
One of China's great private libraries, free to visit and calmer than the mansions tour groups crowd.
Jili Lake Silk Museum
The museum of Jili silk, the product that won gold in London in 1851 and paid for Nanxun's mansions.
Ditang Canal
Ride a hand rowed black canopied boat on the canal that carried Jili silk out of Nanxun.
Feiying Pagoda
A pagoda within a pagoda, an older stone tower nested inside a Song brick tower in the old city park.
Where to stay in Huzhou
Moganshan, Deqing
mountain resorts, bamboo and summer escapes
Home to the naked resorts, family resorts and minsu villages, an hour from the city.
South Taihu, Moon Bay
lake views and resort evenings
The Sheraton Moon Hotel shore, with Fisherman's Wharf dinners and sunset promenade walks.
Huzhou old city, Wuxing
food, pagodas and rail connections
Yishang Street snacks, Feiying Pagoda and Lotus Garden on foot, with the prefecture's best value.
Nanxun Ancient Town
slow water town nights
Sleep inside the old town for the canal at dawn and dusk, when the day trippers are gone.
Think twice about
- Huzhou Station area
Outside the old city with nothing walkable, no evening food scene, and a taxi ride attached to every meal.
- Wukang, Deqing county town
A pleasant small city but 30 plus minutes down the mountain from Moganshan's bamboo, villas and minsu life, and quiet early.
- Nanxun modern district outside the old town gates
A generic sprawl of roads and malls that gives you a day tripper's commute without the water town outside your window.
- Taihu Ancient Town and Dragon Dream resort zone
A newly built show town and theme park complex, not an old town, and basing there strands you far from every other base.
Best restaurants in Huzhou
Taihu Impression Golden Lakeshore
The Taihu banquet splurge, the Three Whites and hairy crab in private rooms over the lake.
Taihu Yingyue Lake View Restaurant
A lake view Taihu dinner of steamed white fish and drunken shrimp without a full banquet order.
Zhou Sheng Ji
Huzhou's most famous wontons, thin skinned and juicy, from a time honoured snack institution.
Ding Lian Fang
Home of the qianzhang thousand layer bun, a Huzhou invention and the essential old city breakfast.
Zhuangyuanlou
The Nanxun name for shuangjiao noodles, double toppings of crispy pork and fish in rich broth.
Meixi Xiaohuozi Dry Tossed Noodles
The locals' dry tossed noodles, a domestic platform favourite that no foreign guide lists.
Houwu Village
Guesthouse kitchens cooking the mountain table, bamboo forest chicken and shoots braised with pork.
Yishang Street
Graze the historic snack street itself, buns, zongzi and rose crisp candy in one slow crawl.
Outdoor things to do in Huzhou
Moganshan Scenic Area
Bamboo hiking past more than 200 foreign era villas to Sword Pond waterfall, cool even in summer.
China Great Bamboo Sea
A rolling ocean of moso bamboo made famous by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, best before 9am.
Hidden Dragon Waterfalls
A stepped series of small falls in a bamboo ravine, a cool two hour summer escape from the heat.
Cloud Grassland
A cable car ride to a high grassland above a sea of cloud, with a cliff swing and sky stairs.
Shenxi Valley Rafting
Ninety minutes of river drifting through a bamboo canyon, with water fights half the fun.
South Taihu Lake Greenway
An easy flat lakeside cycle at Moon Bay, timed to finish as the sun sets over Lake Tai.
Mogan Mountain Guanyun Golf Club
An 18 hole mountain course below Moganshan, but visitor tee times must be confirmed before you travel.
Best hotels in Huzhou
naked Castle Resort
A hilltop castle resort above the bamboo with cliffside dining, pools and standalone villas.
naked Stables Resort
The original naked eco resort, villas around stables with a heated infinity pool in the forest.
Moganshan Senbo Resort
A large family resort with an indoor water park and wooden villas, built for travelling with kids.
Arcadia Resorts Villa Moganshan
A stylish small villa in the bamboo praised for its food, calm setting and personal hosting.
Moganshan Bamboo View Guesthouse
A family guesthouse in Houwu village with home cooking, the classic budget way to sleep on Moganshan.
Sheraton Huzhou Taihu Lake Hot Spring Resort & Spa
The famous ring shaped Moon Hotel rising out of Lake Tai, with spa, pools and a nightly light show.
Garrya Huzhou Lucun
A design led Banyan Tree Group stay in a garden setting, the city's most interesting upscale hotel.
Dongwu Kaiyuan Mingdu Hotel
A large full service city hotel near the old town, the sensible base for pagodas and snack streets.
Is Huzhou expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | CN¥350 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | CN¥750 a person |
| Splurge | CN¥2,200 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Moganshan Scenic Area: a few days ahead
- Cloud Grassland: a few days ahead
- Shenxi Valley Rafting: a few days ahead
- Mogan Mountain Guanyun Golf Club: weeks ahead
- naked Castle Resort: weeks ahead
- naked Stables Resort: weeks ahead
- Moganshan Senbo Resort: weeks ahead
- Arcadia Resorts Villa Moganshan: weeks ahead
- Book Moganshan minsu and the naked resorts weeks ahead for May to October weekends.
- Golden Week, May Day, Qingming and summer school holidays transform crowds and prices across the prefecture.
- Reserve private room Taihu dinners ahead on weekends and through hairy crab season.
- Buy refundable tickets for Anji drifting and Cloud Grassland, which are seasonal and weather dependent.
Is Huzhou safe?
- Keep life jackets on while drifting in Anji and skip runs after heavy rain.
- Bamboo forest paths are wet and slick year round, so wear shoes with grip and carry insect repellent.
- Avoid the exposed Taihu promenade in thunderstorms, and note late summer is typhoon season in Zhejiang.
- Drive the winding Moganshan and Anji mountain roads rested and in daylight where you can.
Huzhou travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Taihu Ancient Town is a newly built show town, not a historic water town.
- At Anji, glass bridges, ziplines and cliff swings are priced per thrill and add up fast, so pick one.
- Hello Kitty Park in Anji is a half day park for young children, not a cultural sight.
- Nanxun's south gate strip at midday on a holiday is the commercial version critics describe, not the dawn town.
Getting around Huzhou: public transport and more
- Huzhou Station is about an hour from Shanghai Hongqiao and 20 to 30 minutes from Hangzhou by high speed train.
- Nanxun has its own high speed station, a 10 minute taxi from the old town gates.
- Walk the old city cluster of Yishang Street, Feiying Park and Lotus Garden, and taxi 20 minutes to the South Taihu shore.
- Hire a car and driver by the day between bases, because inter county buses are slow.
- In Nanxun, tricycles charge a few yuan per kilometre and the 3 yuan water bus runs the canal by day.
Who Huzhou suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Great |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make Huzhou your trip
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