Suzhou Creek enters Shanghai from the west and joins the Huangpu at the Bund, running for roughly fifty kilometres through the city. For most of the twentieth century its banks were factories, warehouses, wharves and workers' housing, and the water itself was famously foul. Since the 1990s the industry has moved out, the water has been cleaned up, and nearly thirty kilometres of bank have been opened as a continuous riverside walk.
Why it is worth walking
The creek is the clearest surviving record of industrial Shanghai. Brick warehouses, godowns with iron shutters, cotton mills, a former post office, grain silos and power stations still stand along the route, and many have been converted into galleries, offices, cafes and apartments rather than demolished. Because the same water once carried most of the city's freight, the bridges are unusually dense - more than thirty cross the creek inside the city, and several of them are historic structures in their own right, including the steel Waibaidu Bridge at the mouth and the concrete Wusong Road Bridge.
The walk
A good section runs from the Bund at Waibaidu Bridge west through the old warehouse district towards the creative parks. The path is level, paved and interrupted only occasionally by a road crossing. Along the way you pass converted factory complexes housing design studios and small museums, a riverside park with seating and planting, and a number of small bridge-side squares where local residents fish or practise tai chi in the morning. The riverside is particularly good at dusk, when the converted warehouses light up and the reflections run down the water.
Practical notes
The walk is easy to combine with a visit to the Bund at the eastern end, and the nearest metro stations depend on which section you choose - Tiantong Road on Line 12, or the stations along the Line 3 and 4 corridor for the middle reaches. There is no entrance fee and no gate; the path is open at all hours, though it is unlit in places after dark. Wear comfortable shoes, and note that the creek and the Huangpu are different waterways - the walk does not circle back to the Bund unless you retrace your steps.
