Be aware that Zhouzhuang, while indeed an old, beautiful and cool town, can be very commercialized, and contains aggressive sales people and vendors, and that can spoil your visit. Suzhou-area locals seem to strongly concur with this perception. There are also many other beautiful little water towns throughout this area of southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang.
Since there many canals, be safe around water edges. Many areas do not have fencing.
Do not be scammed by vendors. Many will say items are handcrafted and hand painted. If an item is in extreme abundance the item is likely made in mass quantity. Some vendors will even have paint sitting out to portray the idea that the items are handcrafted
