# Small Town China (小城中国)

> In-depth guides to China’s small towns — food, culture, history and travel — in Chinese and English, with sources. First stop: Shengzhou, Zhejiang, birthplace of Yue opera and home of Shengzhou xiaolongbao.

Every guide is written in Simplified Chinese with a parallel English translation, lists its sources, and shows when it was first published and last updated. The full text of every guide is in https://smalltownchina.com/llms-full.txt.

## Shengzhou (嵊州), Shaoxing, Zhejiang

- [Shengzhou overview](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/): The birthplace of Yue opera, the home of xiaolongbao, and a small city on the Tang Poetry Road.
- [Shengzhou Xiaolongbao (嵊州小笼包)](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/xiaolongbao/): Many of China’s “Hangzhou xiaolongbao” shops trace back to Shengzhou. Raised with an old-dough starter and left open at the top, these buns are not Shanghai’s soup dumplings.
- [Shengzhou Snacks (嵊州小吃)](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/snacks/): Xiaolongbao, fried rice cakes and fried zhamian noodles are the “three treasures” of Shengzhou snacks — and Shengzhou snack shops are all over China.
- [The Birthplace of Yue Opera (越剧的故乡)](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/yue-opera/): In the spring of 1906, Yue opera took the stage for the first time — in front of a village hall in Shengzhou.
- [The Poets’ Stream (剡溪与唐诗之路)](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/poetry-road/): Li Bai and Du Fu wrote about the Shan stream, Wang Xizhi spent his last years beside it, and a famous story about following a whim ends here.
- [Made in Shengzhou (嵊州制造)](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/made-in-shengzhou/): Neckties, kitchen stoves, Longjing tea, woven bamboo — things made in this small city may be closer to you than you think.
- [Places to Visit (去哪儿走走)](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/places/): A thousand-year-old town, the village where Yue opera began, and the home of the Sage of Calligraphy’s descendants.
- [Getting There (怎么去嵊州)](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/getting-there/): About half an hour from Hangzhou East by high-speed train.

## Optional

- [Notes by Zheng Lao’er (郑家老二)](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/notes/): personal essays and diary entries by a writer who lives in Shengzhou, with English translations.
- [Good Days, Plenty of Rain (好日子，雨水多)](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/notes/west-lake-in-the-rain/)
- [On Hearing “Bless the Motherland” (祝福祖国听歌感怀)](https://smalltownchina.com/shengzhou/notes/bless-the-motherland/)
- [About](https://smalltownchina.com/about/): who runs the site and how the guides are researched.

Contact and corrections: hello@smalltownchina.com