"Nánxún is Not Hard to Find": Bringing the Kids into an Old Dream of Jiangnan

The long-awaited Jiangnan ancient town. At 34, I finally arrived at the Jiangnan ancient town of my dreams. I remember in high school, every evening, I would put on my headphones and listen to audio stories on Kugou about China's Jiangnan water towns. With the melodious background music, scenes of ancient towns constantly appeared in my mind, and I thought that once I started working and earning money, I would definitely visit an ancient town. Finally, unexpectedly after more than a decade, on the first day after the Qingming Festival holiday, I finally brought my child to the Jiangnan ancient town I had talked about countless times—Nánxún Ancient Town. Because we had previously visited Wuzhen, we only had two half-days to explore Nánxún. After checking out from Wuzhen in the morning, we took a 20-minute taxi ride to the East Gate of Nánxún Ancient Town at noon. Since the B&B we booked was next to Tongjin Bridge and very close to Baijianlou, we could take a free boat from the Silk Wharf to the B&B. The B&B's location was excellent, right by the water. The price was very affordable, just over 400 yuan, making up for the regret of not staying in a waterfront room in Wuzhen (which was too expensive). The child loved being able to watch the Wupeng boats from the room. April is truly an excellent travel season. Since we arrived on the last day of the Qingming Festival, there were very few people in the ancient town, it was very quiet, truly comfortable. Because our schedule was very tight, we only had one day in total to casually explore Nánxún with the child. The child was very happy and excited to visit an ancient town for the first time, walking the entire way by themselves. The ancient town's decorations were very thoughtful; strolling around, taking photos, it was very comfortable. Wearing the Qipao bought in Wuzhen, I felt like I had traveled through time in the ancient town. As night fell, Baijianlou was even more breathtaking, truly the Jiangnan ancient town of my dreams. My husband also praised it endlessly. The most valuable thing is that such a 5A-rated scenic area is actually free, free! In the evening, we casually found a restaurant in Baijianlou for dinner, and the food was quite good. After the visit, we returned to the B&B. After tidying up, we opened the window to enjoy the night view of the ancient town. The child excitedly waved to the tourists on the boats outside. In the early morning, I heard various bird calls. I personally really like this feeling; it's very pleasant. For breakfast, we ate at the nearby Zhuangyuanlou, having double-topping noodles. As a northerner, eating noodles in the early morning is a bit unusual, but the taste was quite good, and the child liked it too. After breakfast, we took the child for a casual stroll, fed the fish by the water, and then ended our trip to head to our next stop, Suzhou. Nánxún truly amazed me. My only regret is that the time allocated was too short, and many attractions were not visited. Because we were traveling with a child, the main focus was on a slow pace, so we only explored about 1/3 of it. Well, I'll leave that regret for next time! I will definitely come back!