Zhujiajiao Water Town

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Just a little outside of Shanghai is Zhujiajiao, an ancient water town. Our hostel runs a drop-off and pick-up service there, so we clambered into the mini van (there were actual seatbelts - it felt so luxurious!) with six other backpackers and headed for the town. It's a maze of narrow, lantern-festooned alleyways, clustered with tea rooms and stalls selling paintings and little Chinese trinkets. Labyrinthine canals run through it, crossed by quaint little bridges and traversed by small wooden boats; it's basically a Chinese version of Venice. It was very picturesque, and we must have crossed every single bridge, and wandered down every street, at least twice, determined to explore every nook and cranny. Unfortunately, the rain didn't hold off for long, and so we spent some time drinking hot chocolate, looking out onto the canal. When we eventually did leave the town, we found that the six other people had retreated to a KFC for the last two hours, the weather too cold for them to explore. I don't know whether we dealt better with the low temperatures because we are used to northern England, or because those ten days freezing our socks off in Beijing toughened us up! Don't get me wrong, I do moan about the cold, but whenever I do, Mark just grumbles, unenthusiastically, that we'll be in Death Valley soon enough, moaning about the heat instead. I suppose he has a point, but I really do miss the lovely weather in Chengdu!

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Comments

[Uncle Dinx]

Veh'nice little town.
That picture of Ceri with her hood up... page 54 Observers Book of Clerics 'The Nuns of the Dark Dragon Cult!' Did Zhujiajiao smell like Venice? The pictures seem to hold an essence of a China that I imagine, the slightly concaved rooves, those little wooden boats, the strange Nun. Both your photographic and written works are beginning to capture me! I'm glad that you made the most of your opportunity and didn't spend your time in such a wonderful place eating a bargain bucket of The Colonels American Spicy Quorn and Curly Fries!

[Arran]

Adventures
It is good to know that the further you go the better the transport becomes, three whole seatbelts WOW, lol. It looks like an interesting place but i think if it was brighter you would of been blinded by all the reflected sunlight in the water, so whilst rain isn't the best, bright light would be worse. Keep the explorations going.