Nanxun Ancient Town 南浔古镇

About Nanxun Ancient Town

Nanxun Ancient Town (南浔古镇) is the historic waterside quarter of Nanxun Town (南浔镇), seat of Nanxun District in Huzhou (湖州), in northern Zhejiang on the south shore of Lake Tai (太湖), where Huzhou borders Jiangsu province.

Nanxun grew up on the dense river network of the Taihu basin, with streets laid out along its waterways. It became a town in 1252, and its name joins the first syllables of two older place names, Nanlin (南林) and Xunxi (浔溪). From the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty to the middle Qing, the rise of the silk trade made it rich. Villagers of Qili (七里) in Nanxun improved silkworm breeds and reeling, and Nanxun's Jili silk (辑里湖丝) won a gold award at the first world's fair in London in 1851, according to People's Daily Overseas Edition. After Shanghai opened as a treaty port, Nanxun became a collecting centre for Huzhou silk: of 21,176 bales of silk exported through Shanghai in 1847, 13,426 came from Nanxun. A local saying held that all of Huzhou city was not worth half of Nanxun town.

The wealth built the town that visitors walk through today. Silk families were ranked by fortune as the 'four elephants, eight oxen and seventy-two dogs' (四象、八牛、七十二墩狗), and they built mansions, gardens and studies at home. Xinhua counts more than 200,000 square metres of old buildings in the town. The Zhang family residences on Nanxi Street (南西街), begun in 1899, have 244 rooms over 6,137 square metres; part is late-Qing Chinese building and the rest Baroque-style, with Baroque facades carved with Chinese flower motifs and Chinese halls laid with imported French floor tiles.

Jiaye Hall Library (嘉业堂藏书楼) and Xiaolianzhuang (小莲庄), the garden of the Liu family, are listed together as a national key cultural relics protection unit, as are the Zhang residences and Zundetang (尊德堂), built in 1877 on East Street (东大街). The silk guild hall (丝业会馆) and silk merchants' buildings belong to the Grand Canal World Heritage site, and Xinhua describes Nanxun as the first ancient town in China to be inscribed on the World Heritage List as a whole. Baijianlou (百间楼), a long row of waterside houses, is said to have been built by the Ming minister Dong Fen (董份) for his household; with the Hongji (洪济) and Tongjin (通津) bridges nearby, it gives the town its classic view of homes backing onto the water.

What to look for

• Xiaolianzhuang (小莲庄), the Liu family garden, described by People's Daily as the town's most completely preserved private garden
• Jiaye Hall Library (嘉业堂藏书楼), the private library that Liu Chenggan (刘承干), grandson of the silk merchant Liu Yong (刘镛), completed in 1924 after four years of building
• The Zhang family residences (南浔张氏旧宅建筑群) on Nanxi Street, where Chinese halls and Baroque-style buildings share one compound
• Baijianlou (百间楼), the row of waterside houses attributed to the Ming minister Dong Fen
• Tongjin (通津桥) and Hongji (洪济桥) bridges, built in 1798 and 1805 over the old Ditang (頔塘) canal course through the town
• The silk guild hall (丝业会馆), part of the Grand Canal World Heritage site
• Zundetang (尊德堂), the 1877 former residence of Zhang Jingjiang (张静江) on East Street

Location & getting there

Getting to Nanxun Ancient Town

• Search for 南浔古镇 with 湖州市 and 南浔区.