Xitang Water Town, lying in Jiashan County in Jiaxing City,Zhejiang Province,is a famous town with thousands of years of history.
It dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (476 BC-221 BC).
The town was a place of strategic importance on the boundary of the Wu and Yue states.
Its flat terrain is marked by a quiet, natural environment with rivers running through it.
From a bird’s-eye view of the whole town, one sees blue water sparkling almost in every point the eyes touch
and reflections of the houses in the water. The quiet water, handsome bridges,
and the reflections in the early morning and the rosy sunset, fishing boats and the glistening lights in the evening,
form an amazing picture full of a sense of poetry which can only be seen in the south lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
People there, whether local residents or visitors,
feel that this is a fairyland. They even have no idea as to whether people are wandering in the picture
or the picture is moving in their hearts. The super star Tom Cruise once filmed Mission Impossible III in Xitang,
leading to the boom of Xitang’s popularity among tourists.
In the Xitang Water Town,there are well-preserved groups of buildings of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) with relatively high artistic quality and research value.
It is famous for its large number of covered corridors, lanes and bridges.
