Day 2 : Ancient Water City of Zhouzhuang

Zhouzhuang is between Shanghai and Suzhou. There are many rivers and lakes. It is thought by many to be the best waterside town in China. This ancient town has a history more than 900 years old with many houses built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are about 100 houses with courtyards, and 60 of them have arch gateways made by carved bricks.

We joined a bus tour to take us to the Ancient Water City of Zhouzhuang. Of course, the tour company supplements the price by taking you to places for lunch and stores to buy stuff...

Our first stop was a restaurant where they encouraged us to buy lunch. Michelle says that typically, the tour bus driver and tour guide get 20% of all sales on stuff like this. Turned out the food was really good though. We had peanuts marinated in vinegar, some sliced beef and Michelle had some fish.

Bathroom facilities included only what is referred to as a 'squatting toilet'. Luckily, I wasn't in a position to require the use of the washroom (:

We finally get to the Water City. It's really cool, Michelle refers to it as China Venice. There are canals everywhere, with walkways along the edge of the canals.

Of course, they have boats navigating the canals. And of course the boat handlers will sing for a price. Some were really nice singers, others not so good. Maybe the more you pay, the better they sing? (:

Lots of bridges. From research, the bridges are very old. 14 of them were built during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Included in the tour was an escort through various buildings. The first house was owned, if I recall correctly, by a man who made all his money from selling salt. The tour guide didn't speak any English, so I had to pick up information where I could. The pieces in this house were predominantly from the Ming dynasty.

Very nice piece, it's a huge slab of (I think) marble encased in very intricate woodwork.

Close-up of the woodwork along the bottom of the piece.

Courtyard of the house.

A drawing of the owner of the house.

Beautiful stonework on the walkways. I'd hate to have to lay out all those stones.

One of the lanes along the canal. Shops line both side of the lane, with merchants in every booth trying to get you to come look at their wares.

Very detailed stonework arches throughout the village.

This image from the second house is a 6 or 7 foot tall bronze mural. It ran about 15 to 20 feet along a wall. The mural summarizes the life of the merchant who owned the house. I didn't manage to determine if he commissioned the piece, or if it was something created afterwards... but I believe it's something he commissioned.

Another piece in the life of the merchant.

Some more furniture. The tabletop and seats are all marble inlaid into the wood.

Another large marble stand, with even more detailed woodwork.

A very intricate bench. According to Michelle, this is where the owner and guests would sit and enjoy opiates and other luxury drugs of the time.

Another beautiful table and seats, this time in a very dark wood.

An ancient stove.

Getting to the temple area of the city.

There are numerous temple buildings, all connected by stone walkways. All the buildings are along or in the middle of a large lake.

More temple buildings.

An emblem of the classic phoenix and dragon embedded into one of the bridges between the temples.

The interior of one of the temples.

Lots of walking deserves a break. We stopped at a tea shop along one of the canals. Nice place, but the tea didn't appeal to me. Had a slight sea-weed aftertaste. It was supposed to be similar to Oolong. Sure, if it was Oolong with fish sauce in it... blech. (:

Michelle, of course, loved it. She ordered a rose tea. Rose tea leaves are lighter than water, so they float to the surface, requiring you to sift and blow the leaves away from the edge to drink it. Doesn't look so great, but actually tasted not too bad.

written by  bwatt on December 18, 2005 from Zhouzhuang, China
from the travel blog: China 2005-2006
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