A trip to Wuxi for cherry blossom period

It is the time for cherry blossom in Wuxi. Every year during this moment, it is exciting for me. A trip to Wuxi Taihu Lake for the cherry blossom is the plan of this weekend.


How to plan a great weekend trip to Wuxi for the cherry blossom? I finally made out a plan covered not only cherry blossom but also a visit to an ancient town.

Itinerary summary:
Day 1: After a good sleep, self-driving to an ancient town named Dangkou (荡口). It is a lovely ancient town with fewer visitors and more beautiful scenery. Spending a half day there and then continue to drive to Wuxi and stay overnight there.
Day 2: After a good sleep again to avoid the crowded situation in the morning. Start to appreciate cherry blossom in Wuxi Yuantouzhu scenic area in the afternoon. During the evening, seeing sunset scenery in Taihu Lake area.

Dangkou Ancient Town
Dangkou Ancient Town (荡口古镇) is located in Wuxi area but not a famous one as the Wuzhen or Zhouzhuang. I have known this place from my photography friends. 
► Transportation: Dangkou Ancient Town is not far from Zhangjiagang, about 40km away. The ideal method to get there is self-driving. The detailed route is easy to be found: the E’hu Exit (鹅湖出口) of S19 Expressway
► Introduction: Dangkou, also can be called as Dingshe (丁舍) or Dingcun (丁村) is named because of its location – inside Naqingdang and E’hu. Inside Dangkou, there are many ancient relics such as old coffin home, nanmu hall, former residence of Hua Hengfang, etc.. Nowadays, Dangkou is in the preservation and renovation period.

Detailed itinerary:
On a fine weekend of the early spring of 2014, I began my trip to Dangkou Ancient Town. Together with my friends and self-driving from Zhangjiagang. After a half an hour, we finally arrived in this town.


Because it was a new member on the ancient relics protection list, fewer people known this place. And a lucky thing was no ticket at present. 


The photos told everyone a deep impression of this place – no crowded people, no modern man-made renovation trace, no urgent pace in this town. 


For people who have been to many ancient towns, in general idea, an ancient town is not in a large-scale, and no need to speed more than half a day there. For these ancient towns, you may lost most of the memory and tell your friends that is a boring place. Maybe you will also have the same feeling of Dangkou town, because it is similar with Wuzhen or Xitang as well. But for me, Dangkou is a charming place.

In the second day, we continued our plan to Yuantouzhu (鼋头渚) scenic area. It was closed from Wuxi city to the scenic area.
Tips: it was inconvenient to find a parking room, so better to choose public transportation to there.


No need to introduce the crowded situation in Yuantouzhu. Each spring in the cherry blossom period, locals or surrounded residents would have a trip to Yuantouzhu, a must-see place of Taihu Lake in Wuxi city. Each April to May, the most important thing to do in Wuxi will be appreciating cherry blossom in Yuantouzhu. But more and more crowded situation there now becomes another problem.