Weekend Getaways From Shanghai

Around 70 km from Shanghai, in the neighbouring province of Jiangsu, lies the small canal town of Zhouzhuang, built on the Jinghang Canal, which connects Shanghai to Suzhou. Zhouzhuang rose to prominence during the reign of the Ming dynasty, and signs of the splendour of bygone days can still be seen- in the old villas, the stone bridges and the tree-lined canals of the town. It’s a quiet, picturesque little town and nice for a day trip.  

      About 20 km closer to Shanghai on the road to Zhouzhuang lies Dianshan Hu and the neighbouring Grand View Garden- both unabashedly touristy. There’s lots of scope here for boating, golf and fishing- Dianshan Hu is basically a holiday resort, and the Grand View Garden, modelled on a garden mentioned in an old Chinese novel (Dream of the Red Chamber) has all the makings of a tourist spot.

      She Shan (She Hill) lies about 30 km from Shanghai and offers a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside, the majority of the population is Catholic. This is reflected in the hill’s most prominent monument, a catholic basilica, huge and magnificent. Also on the hill are two other structures- an observatory and a meteorological station; the observatory houses an ancient instrument used to detect earthquakes. Pretty innovative, this consists of a dragon (firmly embedded in the ground) with steel balls in its mouth- only tremors of the earth itself could make the balls drop out of the dragon’s mouth; the more the number of balls that fell out, the more severe the quake.