Cicheng, about twenty-five kilometres northwest of Ningbo city centre, is one of the best-preserved ancient towns in Zhejiang and considerably less visited than the more famous canal towns of northern Zhejiang. The old town centre preserves a dense network of stone-paved lanes, whitewashed Jiangnan courtyard houses, and a collection of public buildings — an old county academy, a Confucian temple, several ancestral halls — that give a real sense of a functioning pre-modern Chinese county town.
The town is worth a half-day from Ningbo: the old city wall section, the ancient academy (Cicheng Academy), and the particularly fine Yingchang Bridge over the town moat are all within easy walking distance of each other. Unlike many "ancient towns" in China, Cicheng has not been fully commercialised for tourism and still functions as a real residential community. The result is more genuine and less photogenic than a fully restored water town, which is precisely its appeal.