The canal network that once ran through the Nanshi Old Town has been largely filled in, but a few sections survive and have been restored as walking routes. The Zhangjiabang section near the southern Old Town offers a glimpse of what the city looked like before the Republican-era filling of the canals — the relationship between residential buildings and water, the stone embankments, and the scale of domestic life built around water transport.
The restored sections are not as atmospheric as the water towns outside Shanghai (Zhujiajiao, Xitang), but they provide a local context for understanding the city's pre-modern geography. The surrounding streets have traditional tea houses operating in restored buildings. The Old Town canal area is most accessible from the south side of the Yuyuan Bazaar complex.