Around Shanghai but off the tourist trail?

[mabelstar1]

I'm spending a couple of weeks travelling starting from Shanghai. I want to go to Huangshan, and maybe one of the water towns.

Has anyone got any recommendations for interesting places to go in this area apart from the obvious places on the Suzhou Tongli Hangzhou Zhouzhuang etc tourist trail? I'm just as interested to go to normal, friendly towns with less of the historic sights and less full on tourism.

thanks a lot for any suggestions.

[phbriggs]

Nanjing is worth a visit. It has the Japanese Massacre Museum, Presidential Place, Ming Tomb, Mausoleum, City Wall, Purple Mountain, Shopping, good food, etc. The city is also not visited in mass by foreign tourists and easy to get to from Shanghai.

Travel options from Shanghai include train (preferred) and bus (the Shanghai – Nanjing expressway is notorious for accidents and long delays).

[laohu489]

If you want to see a water town off of the tourist trail go to 西塘. It is the best in IMO and no one seems to know about it. It's in Zhejiang about 3 hour bus trip. Amazing place. Take your time there, spend about 2-3 days and take in all of the delicious food and sights.

[skylee]

All the suggestions are good.

But I wouldn't suggest going to Wuxi. Strangely it was the dirtiest Chinese city I have been and my visit there was quite unpleasant.