Zhujiajiao

We went for a day trip today to a little town called Zhujiajiao (Joo-Juh-Jow). It's steeped in ancient history and is often called "Shanghai's Venice" or "Water Town". It's one of the oldest cities in the area. There is a fee to get "in" the city, but it was a little less than $10 USD per adult and that included getting into all the museum type buildings and gardens.

The little town sits next to a wide river and has smaller canals running through it. This river and the canals have river boats that look like traditional boats used in fish market trading and product transportation back in the day. The man working the boats used what looked like a long lever and moved it back and forth in the water to propel us forward. It looked like he was working hard pushing us. He had a basic rope attached to it to turn the rudder for direction.

We met my new friend, Sol (previous Coffee Bean entry), and her family there and had a good time walking in the back alleyways, looking at all the goods. However, it was hotter than sin and we were all sweating profusely and redder than tomatoes by the time we stopped for lunch. The buildings were close together and the alleyways were filled with little shops selling their wares, both food and non-food items. One particular product that caught my interest were "pictures" that were actually a ton of delicate thread woven together to make a picture. One of these little stores actually had the woman making them in front of us, authenticating they were, indeed, all hand woven. No two pics were exactly the same...I checked.

I've attached a few pics of our excursion. :) Again, it's not very stroller friendly. And here is a link describing the town a little better: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/zhujiajiao.htm