Zhouzhuang Ancient Town is located southeast of the city of Suzhou and southwest of the city of Kunshan. Zhouzhuang, a AAAA scenic area by the China National Tourism Administration and one of the first batch of China's Historical and Cultural Towns, has 4 cultural relics protected at provincial level and 11 cultural relics protected at municipal level.
Zhouzhuang lies in the eastern part of the alluvial plains of Taihu Lake Basin of the Yangtze River Delta, and is the joining point of the Water System at the mouth of Yangtze River, the water system of Taihu Lake and the water system of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The entire area is dotted with lakes, ports and ponds, and crisscrossed and connected by winding rivers and canals. Zhouzhuang has favorable natural conditions and is capable of yielding all kinds of produces, like rice, wheat, lotus root, water chestnut and fishes. 45% of the Town is covered with green lands. The enchanting idyllic scenery is also one attractive feature of Zhouzhuang Ancient Town.
Zhouzhuang developed into a small trading town from a distribution center of commodities such as grains, cotton, bamboo and fish products. The layout of town is ingenuous and concise: commercial buildings such as shops in the front and factory at the back, shops in the front and living space at the back, shops in the lower story and residence in the upper stories are lined up on both sides of the narrow commercial street. Two horizontal and two vertical rivers in the shape of a Chinese character "井" created the skeleton of the towns’ core area, in which rivers run parallel to streets and roads interchange with waterways; then by aid of the 14 ancient stone bridges, an inter-connection was realized among rivers, streets, houses and lanes, thus the layout and outlook of the ancient town in today.
The traditional dwellings of the town are mainly remains of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the era of the Republic of China. Among them there are some elite architecture such as Twin Bridge, Jingye Tang(The Hall of Shen’s Residence), Yuyan Tang (commonly known as Zhang House), and Residence of Ye Chucang. Based on the identities of the household owners, these dwellings can be divided into three types: mansion of the tycoon merchants, whose house are usually located behind a long alley and have six or seven courtyards. The former part is the entrance hall and the hallway, the middle part the main hall and tea room and the rear part the residence buildings. The second type is houses for pretty wealthy merchants: they own one or two shops, usually shops in the front and factory at the back, shops in the front and living space at the back, or shops in the lower story and residence in the upper stories. The third type is houses for small shop owners, coming most in bungalow or small houses built on, over or by side of the river or a bridge. Each has its own unique style of architecture.
