Xitang is a lovely water village and I highly recommend you visit it. Many thanks to forum contributors who recommended it. However, I want to share a note of caution regarding my experience with admission ticket sales practices at entrance no. 2. It hopefully will save you money and frustration.

After refusing to sell me four 50 RMB admission tickets and pretending not to speak English, I asked my Shanghai native, Chinese speaking friend to intevene. The young lady selling tickets insisted our group of four could only enter the ancient city if we purchased 100 RMB all-inclusive tickets. I knew this was wrong from posts I read in this forum. My Chinese speaking friend again explained we only wanted to walk around the ancient city. The ticket seller insisted that the 50 RMB ticket only gave access to the "park," but not the ancient city. I gave in and paid 400 RMB for four tickets. While in the ancient city, we saw a ticket window sign that clearly stated 50 RMB to visit the ancient city and one sight. Upon leaving, as a matter of principle, we returned to the ticket sales office at entrance no. 2 and asked for the manager. The manager confirmed it was 50 RMB to visit the ancient city only. In Chinese, my friend explained to her what the ticket sales person twice told him. We showed the manager our tickets which confirmed the only box punched was to enter the ancient city -- no museums, no temples or no other sights included on an all-inclusive ticket. In both English and Chinese, the ticket sales girl denied what she twice told my friend (and once indicated to me by shaking her head when I tried to hand her 200 RMB and held-up four fingers). The manager did nothing to correct the situation -- a waste of 200 RMB above what we should have paid to only enter the ancient city. The manager did not even apologize for a possible misunderstanding.

Let me reiterate that Xitang is a lovely place and I recommend that you visit it. But, please be forewarned and cautious of the ticket sales practices. I wish I could chalk this one up to a language problem, inexperience traveling in China and/or my mistake. However, none was the case. My Chinese speaking friend is very precise. Given the manager had a chance to correct the situation and did nothing, I can only conclude it was not an accident or mistake. My only conclusion is that it is a sales tactic that I believe reflects poorly on the staff of entrance no. 2 and the Xitang tourism authority.