China's Ancient Water Town

What an unbelievable day here in Shanghai. Pamela had arranged for a tour guide and driver to take us to one of China’s most famous parks, The Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou. And then on to the ancient, peaceful, quaint, idyllic city of Zhouzhuang Water Town—the Venice of the East. To our utter amazement, the entire 17 million population of Shanghai decided to join us! You can imagine how honored we felt.

The mass exodus that surrounded us made for a tremendous three hour traffic jam; the air filled with blasting car horns, exhaust fumes , and the dust stirred up off the roads by vehicles of every shape and size. Mercedes to bicycles, motor scooters to cement trucks.

The gardens and ancient tiled roof buildings were beautiful and awe-inspiring… we think. We were huddled so tightly amongst the adoring locals that we weren’t able to see very much.

After a quick lunch and tour of the local silk factory (factory tours are a requirement as part of any tour in China) we were off for the quaint idyllic Water Town. The 17 million charged after us, reveling in a day off from school and work.

The Water Town certainly reminds one of Venice, as it was built hundreds of years ago on a web of canals. Gorgeous arched bridges connect the walkways and narrow roads, and singing boat woman skillfully guide wooden boats through the winding waterways. Unfortunately, today the bridges were filled with tour buses and the canals were so jammed with boats that the promise of peacefulness and quaintness somehow got away from us.

Anticipating our visit, hundreds of merchants filled their tiny stalls with every imaginable piece of junk tourists could buy. And cute old wrinkled ladies spread their dried fish, shrimp, and other unidentifiable creatures in woven baskets for us to purchase, if we wished, and munch on the way home in the three hour traffic jam back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we are off on the train to Nanjing. Three days to Lily and counting.

Thanks for checking in.