Where to Stay in Jiaxing, Zhejiang

What is Jiaxing known for?

On the Grand Canal amid a web of rivers and lakes, it keeps South Lake with the red boat where the Communist Party held its first congress, old water towns of bridges and canals nearby, and a taste for its famous rice dumplings. The canals thread the whole city. Red boats cross South Lake.

What are the main landmarks in Jiaxing?

South Lake lies quiet at the heart of Jiaxing. The willow-fringed lake, with its island pavilion and the famous red boat, is a place of pilgrimage for the party's founding, the emblem of the city, in the town. Water towns lie all around.

The old canal towns of Wuzhen and Xitang keep their stone bridges and waterside houses nearby, while the Grand Canal, the temples, and the dumpling museum mark the city of Jiaxing.

What is the history of Jiaxing?

Jiaxing has been a rich water town since ancient days. On the canals of the delta it grew as a market for the rice and silk of the fertile plain, one of the granaries of the south, and its towns of bridges and waterways spread across the lowland. Scholars and merchants filled its lanes.

Over the centuries Jiaxing gave China poets, painters, and officials, and the wealth of the delta filled its gardens and libraries. A quiet lake gave the city a place in history. In 1921, when the police broke up their meeting in Shanghai, the founders of the Communist Party finished their first congress on a boat on South Lake at Jiaxing.

The city guards that memory. A red boat is kept on the lake, and crowds come to see where the party began, among the willows and pavilions. The old canals still cross the town.

Jiaxing keeps its lake and its waterways in the Zhejiang delta.

Where is Jiaxing?

Jiaxing lies on the Grand Canal in the northern Zhejiang delta, China, between Shanghai and Hangzhou. The city sits on the flat, wet plain of the lower Yangtze, laced with canals, rivers, and lakes, near the shore of Hangzhou Bay. Flat watery country spreads around.

The Grand Canal runs through the town.

What is the climate of Jiaxing?

Jiaxing's climate is subtropical and damp through most of the year. Hot, wet summers and cool, damp winters cross the delta, and the monsoon brings heavy rain in the warm months, with a mild spring and a misty autumn. Fog drifts over the canals at dawn.

The paddies flood green through the summer.

How do you get to Jiaxing?

Jiaxing lies in northern Zhejiang, midway between Shanghai and Hangzhou. Fast trains on the main line run to it from both cities in half an hour, and the Grand Canal and the delta rivers carry boats. Canal boats and roads reach the water towns.

Shanghai lies about half an hour to the northeast.