Twenty minutes from Hangzhou, and worth a night rather than an outing

Shaoxing North is about 20 minutes from Hangzhou East and an hour and 20 from Shanghai Hongqiao, then metro line 1 runs into the old town in about 40 minutes.

The reason to sleep here is that this water town never stopped being a working town: the laundry is real, the boatmen paddle with their feet, and after the coaches leave the canals belong to the neighbourhood. Take a room on Cangqiao Straight Street and walk it after dark.