Half Day Trip to 古猗园 Guyi Garden and 南翔古镇 Nan Xiang Ancient Town@上海 Shanghai, China

We spent the morning at 古猗园 Guyi Garden (¥12 per adult).

It appeared to be a garden where the locals gather to dance and chat. We guessed it paled in comparison to the natural beauty of 西湖 and 东湖, and we thought the artificial swans and all were really quite unnecessary. There were also a few exhibitions in some of the pavilion.

We also caught some 腊梅 and 梅花 on their way to blossoming. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours strolling and enjoying the greenery.

After which, we checked out the 南翔小笼包 Nanxiang Xiao Long Bao restaurants lining outside the garden, and eventually settled for the largest restaurant (which appeared to have its its own carpark ) 上海古猗园餐厅.

We ordered 原味鲜肉小笼 Pork Xiao Long Bao (¥30 for 16 soup dumplings) and 雪菜笋丝汤 Pickled Vegetables and Bamboo Shoots Soup (¥10 per bowl). Both were not bad!

After this, we continued on to 南翔古镇 Nanxiang Ancient Town.

Being one of the more easily accessible ancient towns, while it was definitely touristy, it satisfied my wish of visiting a pretty water town (水乡) 🙂

There was also a 老街 Old Street filled with snacks and souvenirs.

Naturally, we tried 糯米草头饼 (a type of fried pancake made of glutinous rice flour and burr medic) (¥3) and 鸡肉串和羊肉串 Chicken and Mutton skewers (¥8 for 1, or ¥14 for 2) from a shop called 上品鸡排.