Shaoxing: Yellow Wine, Old Lanes and Literary China

The City of Yellow Wine

Shaoxing is famous for one thing above all: yellow wine, the amber rice wine that is drunk warm with meals and used by the ladle in Chinese cooking. But the city is more than its cellars — stone bridges over canals, white-walled lanes, a literary pedigree built on one of the country's most-read modern writers, and a compactness that makes it a comfortable day or overnight from Hangzhou.

Wine, from Cellar to Table

The wine is made from rice and aged, sometimes for decades, and the city's historic cellars and wineries run tastings and tours: you can see the jars, learn the difference between cooking wine and drinking grades, and taste the range from dry and light to sweet and dark. The old town's wine shops serve it warm with small dishes, which is the way locals drink it.

Lanes, Bridges and Literature

Shaoxing's old town is a network of lanes and canals crossed by arched stone bridges, with the childhood home and study of the writer Lu Xun preserved as a museum — a site that Chinese visitors know from school textbooks and that explains a lot about modern Chinese literature. Beyond it, the old streets hold teahouses, wine shops and the small workshops that make the city's traditional products.

Practical Notes

Shaoxing has high-speed rail links to Hangzhou (about twenty minutes) and Ningbo, making it a natural stop on a Zhejiang route. Spring and autumn are the best seasons; the wine cellars are cool and pleasant in summer. One day covers the old town, the writer's home and a tasting; an overnight adds the lakes and the surrounding water country.

Frequently Asked Questions