I wasn’t expecting much, the town is just outside Shanghai and on leaving the metro station I was faced with a rather nasty shopping mall calling itself ‘Famos Mall’. There I braved the crowds and partook in a KFC before stumbling across the signs pointing the ‘old street’.
There were plenty of people going the same way and so it was easy not to
get lost. Little bridges crossed canals and narrow streets were lined
with snack stalls and cheap clothes shops much like those found in
Fuzimiao in Nanjing.
A warm bright public holiday had brought out a huge body of people, walking leisurely along the narrow streets, taking selfies on the bridges and chewing on God know what sort of meat threaded onto sticks and passed over a flame.
Beggars were also out in force with their missing limbs and their long white beards or disabled companions.
I didn’t see any other foreigners here – maybe they were wiser than to try a tourist destination on January 1st.
After fighting the crowds for about half an hour, I felt I had seen all that Qibao had to offer me. Yes, there were sweet little bridges and lovely reflections and weeping willows and bus rides but walking in such mass of people was putting a train on my patience and I squeezed myself out of the pack and headed back to the metro.
Qibao is a good option if you don’t have much time and you’d like to see a water town near Shanghai but if you have more than an afternoon, there are better and quieter ones to be had nearer Suzhou or Kunshan.
On the other hand, if you’d like to experience big crowds, being stabbed
by children with kebab sticks and tripping over beggars at every turn,
head along to Qibao on a warm public holiday weekend.
