Wuzhen

One of the many waterways

Entrance to the Mao Dun Museum

Wuzhen ( Chinese 乌镇 , Pinyin Wūzhèn Zhèn ) is a large municipality in the independent city of Tongxiang , Zhejiang Province , People's Republic of China . It is located around 120 km southwest of downtown Shanghai , about halfway between Suzhou and Hangzhou . The place has an area of 67.48 km² and has around 57,200 inhabitants (end of 2010). The writer Mao Dun came from Wuzhen , whose former home is now accessible as a museum.

Wuzhen is located on the Imperial Canal that connects Beijing with Hangzhou, and the Shi River flows through it from north to south. Numerous other waterways run through the place, whose historic buildings have been restored and supplemented at great expense since the early 1990s. The two open-air museums are among the special attractions of the community today : the Wuzhen Xizha museum village to the west of the town center and the Dongzha area, which is closer to the urban area.

Wuzhen was 2008 by the PRC for inclusion in the list of World Heritage of UNESCO proposed. Wuzhen is also one of Jiangnan's famous Six Old Large Communities (江南六大古镇).

The history of Wuzhen goes back to the year 860, the year a military fortress was founded in this place; the establishment of an adjacent settlement is dated to the year 872. However, this area was already settled at least for a time, as 7000-year-old finds from the Neolithic Age , which were uncovered near Tanjiawan - an eastern suburb of Wuzhen - prove.

Administrative structure

Wuzhen is made up of three communities and 17 villages. These are:

Resident Community Nangong (南宫社区), the seat of the municipal government;

Resident Community Dongyuan (东苑社区);

Resident Community Yinxing (银杏社区);

Baimadun village (白马墩村);

Chenjia village (陈家村);

Village Chenzhuang (陈庄村);

Village Duifangqiao (碓坊桥村);

Village Fenshuidun (分水墩村);

Village Fulanqiao (浮澜桥村);

Henggang village (横港村);

Hongqiao Village (虹桥村);

Minhe village (民合村);

Nanzhuangqiao Village (南庄桥村);

Pengjia Village (彭家村);

Shuangta Village (双塔村);

Wuxing village (五星村);

Village Xinweng (新翁村);

Village Yanjia (颜家村);

Village Yuye (渔业村);

Village Zheyue (浙月村).

Web links

Commons : Wuzhen - collection of images, videos and audio files

wuzhen.com.cn - Wuzhen Tourist Office website

wuzhen.de - Detailed and richly illustrated website for both museum zones (German)

Wuzhen in the Chinese place-name network (Chinese)

Individual evidence

^ The Ancient Waterfront Towns in the South of Yangtze River. On: unesco.org , accessed October 19, 2015

30.746111111111 120.49166666667Coordinates: 30 ° 45 ' N , 120 ° 30' E

[1] The Ancient Waterfront Towns in the South of Yangtze River. On: unesco.org , accessed October 19, 2015