Here is the ticket office for Wuzhen West Scenic Area (Xizha). There’s also a ticket office for the East Scenic Area (Dongzha). Although many visitors purchase their tickets online, most of them are domestic tourists. For foreign travelers, it's still more convenient to buy tickets on-site, since not everyone uses WeChat Pay or Alipay. For those unfamiliar with Chinese apps, using them can feel quite troublesome—even if the process isn’t particularly complicated, it’s still not that user-friendly for international visitors.
We didn’t purchase our tickets in advance online either; we waited until we arrived to buy them, as we hadn’t decided which area to visit yet. We had visited Wuzhen about ten years ago, back when the West Scenic Area (Xizha) was still under construction. Since then, we hadn’t had the chance to come back—until this visit.
Once we arrived, we realized we couldn’t even remember which area we had visited before. We had a vague impression it was Dongzha, and after asking the owner of our guesthouse, we confirmed that it was indeed Dongzha.
We also asked the guesthouse owner whether it was worth visiting both areas or if we should just go to Xizha. In the end, we decided to visit both and bought a combined ticket. Our schedule was relatively flexible, and Dongzha doesn’t take that much time to explore, whereas Xizha is many times larger in area. The atmosphere and vibe of Dongzha and Xizha are slightly different—Dongzha feels a bit more authentic. There used to be guesthouses inside Dongzha as well, though it’s unclear if they’re still operating. (When we visited this time, none were open for accommodation.)
Ultimately, how to plan your visit depends on your schedule—everyone has a different idea of what “enough time” means. The experience in Xizha during the day versus at night is quite different. Most people say if you don’t see it during the day, you should at least see it at night. We visited Dongzha first, then entered Xizha in the evening and stayed until after dark to enjoy the night view—so we experienced both.
Generally, even if someone chooses to skip one area, they would only skip Dongzha. Xizha is rarely skipped.
In front of the main entrance to Xizha, there’s a row of shuttle pick-up points. In addition to the shuttles running between Dongzha and Xizha, there are also buses to nearby provinces and major cities like Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Suzhou. There are even buses that run directly between the scenic area and airports. Overall, transportation is quite convenient—even without renting a car, there are plenty of options available.
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