Sanhe Ancient Town is actually not very large. You can casually stroll around for four or five hours. If you want to see the night view, you can stay a little longer. It is suitable for pure relaxation, taking a walk, without a specific purpose, just wandering around (don’t have extremely high expectations).
Transportation: Self-driving is more convenient. For parking, you can navigate to the parking lot inside the scenic area. It costs 10 yuan for 5 hours. The parking lot is very large and the restrooms are also very high-end (the decoration and hygiene are impressive). The scenic area ticket office is also inside the parking lot, which is very convenient.
Tickets: The ancient town is free of charge. The attractions inside such as former residences are charged. You can buy a combination ticket at the ticket office in the scenic area parking lot or buy tickets separately when you visit the former residence attractions. (Personally, I suggest that unless you are determined to visit all the former residence attractions, it’s better to buy tickets when you go inside and visit. Some of the charged attractions are just so so).
Route: As soon as you enter the scenic area, there is a cruise ship dock. It is recommended that either take a boat directly to go in and then stroll out slowly, or stroll in and finally take a boat out. It costs 20 yuan per person. The round-trip route is the same and the scenery is also the same.
Inside, you will encounter people soliciting customers by tricycle. It costs 60 yuan for a trip. They will take you around and give explanations. Whether it’s worth it or not depends on personal choice. There is no absolute good or bad.
Food: As you walk inside, there will be many shops with obvious homogeneity. For a proper meal and local cuisine, you can choose a restaurant. For chain fast food, there is Laoxiangji and others. Personally, I ate fried rice and noodles in a small shop. To be honest, the hygiene was very poor. The tableware was visibly dirty and the taste was just so-so. (Later, I found that Laoxiangji was 100 meters ahead. I deeply regretted not looking at the map in advance).
Sanhe rice dumplings are a local specialty. You won’t go wrong buying from any store. The only thing to note is to buy them hot, preferably freshly made. Cold ones are not as crispy. Personally, I still like them very much. There is tofu and shrimp inside. If you try it for the first time, you might as well buy one to taste.
Here, I encountered a breakfast that I haven’t seen for many years: lion’s head buns. When buying, also pay attention to whether it’s hot and fresh.
Attractions: The day I went was an ordinary weekend. It was cloudy and it rained from time to time. It’s not extremely beautiful scenery nor is it crowded with people. It’s just a quiet small town. Saying it’s commercialized is because the shops are densely clustered together and the things sold are highly similar. Saying it’s not commercialized is because I always feel that it still has the taste and tranquility of life. That faint, unhurried feeling is very much like the feeling that my hometown gave me in my memory when I was a child. The hawking is not loud and there isn’t much. The shop owners are chatting among themselves. The boatman said that only on major festivals will there be many people here.
I visited several charged attractions. The only one that I found interesting and worth seeing is the former residence of Yang Zhenning. Strictly speaking, this is his grandma’s home. There are explanations and physics mini-games inside, complementing each other.
In the ancient town, there are also many places for Hanfu dressing up and photography. If you are interested, you can try them. However, according to my observation, some shops’ aesthetics have not kept up with the times. They still have the taste of ten years ago.
Just relax. Don’t think too much. There is no need to make a very detailed guide. Maybe you can still encounter unexpected surprises in the small town.