Ancient town offers visitors a feast of culture
2025-05-17 to 2025-06-15
2025-05-17 to 2025-06-15
A Sijing musician plays the erhu, a traditional two-string fiddle.
Visitors can dress up in traditional hanfu (Han-style) clothing.
Sijing Town, a millennium-old town with a profound cultural heritage in Songjiang District, is cooking up a cultural feast with an array of activities next month, offering tourists a series of delights.
In addition to enjoying the beauty of Sijing's historic lanes, bridges, towers, pavilions and teahouses, visitors will be able to enjoy Peking, Kunqu, Huju and Yueju opera performances, pingtan (storytelling and singing in the Suzhou dialect), shadow play, luogushu (storytelling with a gong and drum hits) and monologues.
Visitors can also don traditional hanfu (Han-style) clothing or elegant qipao (cheongsams), stroll through the town's alleys for a travel photography experience, or play ancient games such as touhu (arrow-throwing) and chuiwan (a Chinese game similar to golf).
The town is all dressed up to welcome visitors.
Among the highlights offered in the ancient town will be quyi (folk art performances), song and dance, and instrumental performances to create a unique cultural experience blending traditional intangible cultural heritage and pop-up fashion.
Visitors can interact with performers dressed as mythical figures and historical celebrities, from the boy god Nezha and his ally Aobing, to the White Snake and Green Snake, experiencing the charm of traditional Chinese culture in a fashionable way.
The ancient town will also host special events such as intangible cultural heritage experience classes where inheritors will teach skills such as making Chinese sachets, hand-painting glass cups and creating agate bracelets. A theater will feature a variety of shows, including shadow plays, comedy, puppetry and Kunqu opera interactive experiences.
Musicians play traditional Chinese instruments in a Sijing performance.
Visitors to Sijing should come hungry as a visit to the town must include tasting its signature delicacies.
Sixiaolong soup dumplings, with their thin skin, generous filling and rich juice, are available in popular pork, crab roe and vegetable flavors.
As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches, the town's specialty zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) are a must-try. At the town's zongzi shop, in addition to classic pork and egg-yolk zongzi, visitors can sample specialty rice cakes such as babaofan ("eight-treasure rice" puddings) and fanggao (square cakes).
A group playing traditional Chinese instruments perform in the town.
The ancient town is a great place for a weekend getaway.
Date: Through June 15
How to get there: Take Metro Line 9 and get off at Sijing Station, and take a taxi ride of around 2 kilometers.