I’ve named this a whistle stop tour, as I spent around 15 hours in Wuxi after deciding to go from work to there one night. From Ningbo to Wuxi takes around 3 hours by High Speed Rail and tickets cost about 200RMB (£20) for a return second class ticket.
I wanted to visit Wuxi as part of my weekend travels from Ningbo, I started in Wuxi before moving to Suzhou for the remainder of the weekend. This is by no means a see-all tour in Wuxi, but I did manage to see a lot before I moved on.
Itinerary:
Qingming Bridge and Ancient Canal
Atour Hotel – Jinlun Xingguang Mingzuo, No. 3 Qianwei Road, Wuxi
The Plum Gardens
Huishan Ancient Town
Chong’an Temple
Nanchang Temple
For getting around Wuxi I used both the subway lines and DiDi (Taxis). It was easy enough for me to add Wuxi’s metro pass to my Alipay APP, which is something you will have and use if, like me, you live in China already.
Arrival:
I arrived into Wuxi East Railway around 9pm. From here, I took a taxi to Qingming Bridge. I had heard about the canal at night and how it would be lit up.
I took a walk from the entrance way of the Ancient Town to the opposite end, the town was filled with people and there are a few small bars/pubs to visit along the way. Also food stalls and little shops line the whole street.
As Wuxi was a new city for me, I chose to DiDi from the end of the Ancient Canal to my hotel (Atour Hotel) which took around 10 minutes. I regularly choose to stay in Atour Hotels in the cities I visit as they are foreigner friendly and generally great value for money. One night here cost me 250RMB (£25) including breakfast. Warning – Breakfast is Chinese Western breakfast, so while you can get crossaints usually there will also be the typical Chinese breakfast of noodles and fried up items.
Day 2:
To begin Day 2, I chose to visit the Plum Garden area which was a little further out than I had intended on visiting. My DiDi from the hotel area to Plum Gardens cost 60RMB, which in terms of DiDi is quite pricey but also quick and efficient. I went to Wuxi just after Plum Blossom season, so for me there weren’t any huge plum blossom trees lining the sides, but the garden was still an enjoyable area.
Entrance for the Plum Garden is 60RMB (£6) and there are definitely parts I felt I didn’t manage to find while I walked around. As I visited on a Saturday, there was a number of tourist groups also visiting the gardens and watching them take part in their photoshoots was highly entertaining!
From The Plum Garden, I used a DiDi to travel to Huishan Ancient Town, DiDi was very easy to use in this area as it is a popular tourist destination. This DiDi cost just under 30RMB and again was my preferred route for the speed.
Huishan Ancient Town:
Huishan is a large ancient town with many distinct landmarks inside. You could very easily spend a day in this area, there is a Scenic Forest area attached to the town. However, I chose to just spend a few (2-3) hours in the area, seeing as much as I could given the huge crowds in the town that day. Tickets for Huishan cost 70RMB (£7) so worth spending a day or half day in the area.
It’s very easy to follow the route of the Ancient Town and most streets lead back to one another. I didn’t spend as long as I could have here due to my early departure from Wuxi. Huishan has some noteworthy landmarks inside the Ancient Town and souvenir shops galore!
Photos showing:
Walkways in Huishan
Huishan Ancient Town ticket with the map included (to clarify, this is the quality of the ticket not my camera skills)
Canal inside Huishan Ancient Town
From Huishan, I popped into the closest mall to grab some lunch, nothing fancy just Peet’s Coffee which has a range of small dishes and tasty drinks. This was inside the Sanyang Plaza and was a quick 10 minute walk from where I exited the Ancient Town.
Chong’an Temple:
From the shopping mall, you can follow the underground pathways to reach Chong’an Temple. It stands out as an out-of-place temple within a highly commercialised area of Wuxi. Its free to walk around and was really quiet when I arrived. It is only small and 15-20 minutes would allow enough time to walk up to it, see the statues and sit down near to it. You could continue looking at the small store located below the temple area.
Next on my list was Nanchang Temple, I hopped onto the subway (line 1) from Chong’an Temple area to Nanchang Temple area. This was to be my final stop on my trip in Wuxi as my train was due an hour later. I quickly passed through the outdoor markets of Nanchang and walked through the Temple surroundings, I didn’t have chance to go inside the temple itself but I have heard many good things about the area at night and the temple grounds. Definitely worth a visit!
From there I took a taxi over to Wuxi Railway Station where I would board my train to Suzhou for my next stop. Bringing me to the end of my 15 hours in Wuxi!
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