If getting caught up in the holiday frenzy of crowds and queues is not exactly your idea of a great getaway, there are plenty of destinations closer to Shanghai that offer a respite from hectic city life.

In the past, Labor Day was celebrated with parades and rallies to commemorate the heroic achievements of workers and farmers worldwide.

Today, it is a heroic achievement to avoid the traveling masses or emerge unscathed from the jostling with holiday crowds at airports, railway or bus stations in Shanghai.

For many expats, their experiences at major tourist spots can often end in disappointment. Not because of the places but because they pick the wrong times to go.

Still, there is no need to compromise the desire to travel during the upcoming three-day holiday. There are many lesser-known treasures in neighboring cities that offer a respite from city life that do not involve long, expensive flights or, of course, crowds.

Moving from "modern" China to one of the few remaining pockets of "old" China requires just a single step in Tongli, in Jiangsu Province, one of the canal towns in the Yangtze River Delta just two and a half hours from Shanghai.

This ancient town is best explored on foot to experience the interlocking canals, humpbacked bridges, traditional Ming- (1368-1644) and Qing-Dynasty (1644-1911) architecture and lakes - even if you get lost.

While Tongli throngs with Chinese tourists in the main streets and on the most romantic bridges, step down an alley or into damp lanes serving the clusters of houses, and you enter a quiet, shaded world seemingly left behind by history and oblivious to the curiosity of visitors.

Windows and doors are left wide open, cooking smells waft from grimy, hole-in-the-wall kitchens, ladies' knickers hang from makeshift lines. Even the gondoliers on the waterways prefer dozing in their boats under the willows to actively plying for customers.