Xinshi Town is a town in Deqing County of Huzhou prefecture-level city, in China's Zhejiang Province. Xinshi is located about 30 km north-east of the provincial capital, Hangzhou.
Xinshi Town's Zisiqiao Village (子思桥; 30.6°N 120.2167°W), nicknamed the "Snake Village" by the media, is renowned as a center of snake farming. The locals have been raising snakes since ca. 1985;[1] currently, about 800 people in Zisiqiao work in snake farming industry, raising some 3 million snakes a year. Live snakes are supplied to specialty restaurants; dried or preserved in alcohol, they are sold to manufacturers of traditional Chinese medicines; snake-infused wine is made as well. [2] [3] Deqing Snake Culture Museum is a local tourist attraction.[2] [4]