Walk through Shaoxing from Bazi Bridge to Ivy League Library

Shaoxing is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. Located on the south bank of the Qiantang River estuary, it borders Ningbo to the east, Taizhou to the southeast, Jinhua to the southwest, and Hangzhou to the west. Shaoxing central districts of Yuecheng and Shaoxing are now part of Hangzhou built up area which is home for more than 7 million inhabitants.

Modern-day Shaoxing sits on the site of the capital of the Spring and Autumn Period State of Yue. Around the sixth century BC, Yue had a sinicised ruling elite which fought a number of wars against its northern archrival, the State of Wu.

Shaoxing became a subprefecture during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Under the Republic of China, it became a county. Under the People's Republic of China it is a city administrative unit.

Take a taxi from the train station, you will soon arrive the Bazi Bridge, about three kilometers away. This bridge was built in the Southern Song Dynasty Jiatai years, and reconstructed in four years of South Songbao You, shaped like a Chinese character “八”, so named.






Five meters in height and 3.2 meters in width, Bazi Bridge crosses a total distance of 4.5 meters.




There is a classic single-hole semi-circular stone arch bridge not far from Bazi Bridge, called the Dongshuang Bridge.


Walk about one kilometer from Dongshuang Bridge, through a busy commercial street, y there is a small Ivy League Library in Hutong, whose owner is a wealthy man, called Xu Jian, and his son Xu Wei was good at painting, poetry, calligraphy and literature.












The pool is called Tianchi, it is said that the water won’t dry up and over flow, with a pomegranate tree near by, so this house is called Louhua Library.


There is a ivy beside the pool, and it is said that it was planted by Xu Wei. 




Now the Louhua Library is the only residential areas with Ming Dynasty scholar's garden features in Shaoxing.