If walking tires you out, you can rouse the gondoliers to take you for a leisurely 30-minute boat ride along the canals through town for 60 yuan (US$8.57) to catch a number of attractions.

Visits to old homes, the temple on a small island in nearby Xiaodian Lake and the China Sex Culture Museum are a must.

The museum is located in what used to be a girls' school during the Qing Dynasty and features more than 4,000 items of erotica that serve as chronological evidence of the many different phases of China's sexual history over the past 5,000 years.

Someone once described Tongli as a place when the volume has deliberately been turned down. Despite growing tourist numbers, the architecture and tranquility of the canal town has remained intact, in stark contrast to the noisy neon brashness of other tourist hotspots.

Whether you walk or take a boat ride through this exquisite pocket of living history, the sound of bird songs will be a particularly divine experience.

For the more adventurous, a boat (180 yuan) departs regularly from the town's entrance to take people to Zhouzhuang, the largest and most famous of the canal towns. Other watertowns include Wuzhen in Zhejiang Province, Zhujiajiao in Shanghai's suburban Qingpu District, and Xitang, 110 kilometers southwest of Shanghai.

Tongli watertown

Opening hours: 7:45am-5:30pm

Admission: 80 yuan

Website: www.china-tongli.com

Popular trips out of Shanghai

Outlet shopping

Shopping at the Shanghai Outlets in Zhaoxiang town of Qingpu District is a refreshing change to city shopping with more than 240 discount stores.

Opening hours: 10am-9pm

Address: 2888 Huqingping Highway, Qingpu District

Tel: 5975-6060

Romantic country walks

Stroll through forests of lush green bamboo or frolic on the soft green grass beside the lake at Shanghai Sculpture Park on Sheshan Hill.