Blogs from Xitang, Zhejiang, China, Asia
July 22nd 2009
Yesterday at about 2pm we caught a public bus to a small historic water town called Xitang. The town has thousands of years of history and there are NINE rivers that run into this town, dividing it into eight parts. Being in Xitang has shown me a completely different side to China. People here way more chilled out than in Shanghai and everyone's a lot more easygoing and friendly. There's ancient bridges and really narrow lanes all over the place and some of the locals still get around via little gondolas. This place is the epitome of picturesque and I went pretty nuts with my camera here. We're here for a couple more nights so I'm looking forward to checking more of it out. ... read more
May 4th 2008
Since we last wrote, we've been on some interesting day trips around Zhejiang Province; so we thought we'd take the opportunity to write a brief blog and upload some of the photos. Xitang The area that we're living in has a number of ancient water towns dotted around, within about an hour's drive of Jiaxing. We visited one of them - Xitang - last week. We went with the two other foreign teachers and Charles, one of the Chinese teachers from our school, as the guide. The modern area of the city is similar to many others in the region, but the old section of the town is quite fascinating. Its buildings face onto the canals, and have been preserved in their original state - all wooden architecture and lanterns. The town is not just a ... read more
December 28th 2007
Xitang is known for its bridges, lanes, and ceilinged corridors. Chinese describe it 「橋多、弄多、廊棚多」. It almost felt like I just traveled hundreds of years back in time to the Ming and Qing Dynasty. It also felt like I was walking in a Chinese painting with waterfront landscape. Life here seemed to be quieter, more lay back and easy going. This ancient water town reminds me of the Chinese poem: 小橋, 流水, 人家. Unique and beautiful! ... read more
November 17th 2007
Wuzhen and Xitang, both are the water towns from Zhejiang province, but Wuzhen is so much commercial for me, so I will basically tell the story about the Xitang. Xitang is a small old water town of Zhejiang, probably the Zhejiang and Jiangsu province have a lot of water resource so there are so much old water towns, and the Xitang is the water town had the more "feeling" of the old town in my opinion, they preserved well the place, there is still living the people, normally old ones, there is a entrance charge to pay, but it is not necessary, the town is not walled, and you can find a lot of the free ways to get in, that is what the local people do too. Xitang also was the scene of the movies ... read more
Xitang, the Beauty of an Ancient Chinese Water Town
Published: February 23rd 2008Asia » China » Zhejiang » Xitang
October 27th 2007
Let’s take a journey back in time… Xitang is one of the ancient water towns in the south of the Yangtze River which beauty lies in its simple, unadorned appearance and lack of tourists! (compared to Zhouzhuang, the other famous water town) Many stores and houses are built on the riversides, the river being in many ways the main road... So, you naturally follow it, protected by covered corridors, walking by ancient houses, tiny shops and tea house where time has stop a while ago... Food street is as surprising as this town, might not look very pleasing at first, but happen to be absolutely delicious!! Guess the 'you eat first with your eyes' doesn’t not apply to Xitang! Spent quite a while walking around, standing on Xitang famous ancient bridges watching the boats passing by ... read more
Verschillende waterdorpen in de buurt van Hangzhou.
Published: August 6th 2007Asia » China » Zhejiang » Xitang
March 14th 2007
Woensdag 14 maart. Vanochtend waren we op tijd op om in te pakken en toch nog iets te kunnen bezoeken maar de weergoden beslisten er anders over. Het was erg somber en tijdens het ontbijt begon het hard te regenen met soms zelfs wat onweer: geen weer voor een wandeling. We bleven deze voormiddag dan maar voor het grootste deel van de tijd op de kamer. Dit is op zichzelf geen ramp want er valt altijd wel iets te schrijven aan de verslagen. Berna had ook nog voldoende werk om informatie die al verzameld was voor de rest van de trip, verder te verwerken. Ik moest er wel even in de gietende regen op uit om wat geld uit de muur te halen. De eerste ATM-machine (geen Bank of China) wilde niets leveren, de tweede ... read more
