CHINESE WATER TOWNS

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CHINESE WATER TOWNS

I have spent several weeks in Shanghai now and visited many places. I want to tell you about one of the places I have been to. West of Shanghai there are several small towns and villages which are known in Chinese as shui xiang, or water towns. These are ancient living towns where daily life still goes on. They are acclaimed for their arched bridges, ancient buildings and serene waterways. We went to a water town called Zhujiajiao not long after I arrived in Shanghai. Zhujiajiao is only 47km (30 mi) from downtown Shanghai and it is located on the eastern shore of Dianshan Hu (Dianshan Lake). The modern portion of Zhujiajiao covers 18 sq. mi. but the ancient fan-shaped area covers just over 1 sq. mi. and sits astride 2 small waterways and a large river. It’s history goes back 1,700 years!! Imagine walking down a street that had been there for 1,700 years. The streets are paved in stone or rock, somewhat rough and very narrow. It was pretty crowded the day we went. A combination of tourist and local people tending to their daily business. Zhujiajiao reached its prosperity during the Ming Dynasty. There are 36 surviving bridges here. The most famous one is called Fanshen Qiao and it crosses the Dianpu River in spectacular style, rising to a peak midstream on five exquisite arches. (See the pics.) At the apex of the bridge are four stone lion guardians. Fansheng means “releasing sacrificial animals”. It has long been the custom for Buddhists to gain merit by releasing fish here. In Zhujiajiao’s new tourist incarnation, the entrepreneurial Chinese people sell live fish by the bridge to be released into the water and are doing a good business. We had a good laugh when walking across the bridge, a little short elderly Chinese lady came up to us at the top of the bridge and tried to sell us a small plastic bag with a couple of gold fish in it. She was very persistent and was willing to bargain for the price of the fish. She wanted us to buy the fish and then drop them off the bridge to release these “sacrificial animals and save their lives”! The funny part is that the bridge is high enough and the gold fish small enough that the fall to the water would have probably knocked them silly if not killed them outright. We didn’t have the heart to do that to the innocent little fishies!! There is another really cool looking bridge called Lang Qiau or (Veranda Bridge), a wooden structure with a protective gray tile roof with upturned eaves. It felt really nice walking around in this water town. We took a ride on one of the boats that go up and down the canals. Kinda reminds one of Venice. We had tea in one of the tea houses on the river. I’ve included pictures so you can get the idea of what a Chinese water town is really like. So take a walk with me through Zhujiajiao. It is a really interesting and picturesque place to visit and also get to see a lot of Chinese people up close!

Now thinking of the old lady on the bridge selling the fish brings me to another issue here in China. The vendors who sell stuff for the most part are very pleasant and drive a hard bargain with you, but they are so persistent sometimes that it can be annoying when you are not interested in buying whatever it is they are selling. I call it a “high pressure sales pitch” and you know what I mean….. (They probably want me on their calling list to follow up with me and make sure I haven’t changed my mind!) ☺ Another issue in China is the beggars. All kinds, young and old, sometimes missing limbs and usually pretty sad looking. I have seen a couple of them missing both legs or feet just pushing themselves down the street on some make shift platform on wheels, not unlike a large skateboard. I have a system now to deal with this. I try to remember to put my coins and small bills in one pocket before I go to an area where I know they will be. This way I can just reach in my pocket and give them some small amount of money. I won’t take their picture, but I have given 1 or 2 RMB to someone to take their picture. Anyway this saves me from having to dig out my wallet every time I want to give some money away. You do realize, of course, that you do not carry your wallet in a place that is easy to access because of pick pockets here. Not much violent crime here, but there are pick pockets and tourists are easy marks. Several months ago Phoebe was walking to her Chinese class minding her own business, listening to music on her iPhone with her ear phones. Suddenly her music stopped and she thought she had an incoming call and looked down to reach for her iPhone in the front pocket of her purse, only to see the cord from her ear phones dangling in mid air. Some young man shouted to her and pointed to a young teenager swiftly walking away. She ran up to him and demanded her phone back and the kid just kept walking. She tried to hollow at him in Chinese, but slaughtered the language beyond recognition. At this point, the young man who had alerted her to the incident came up and started shouting at the kid in “Shanghainese” and he finally reached into his pocket and handed her back her phone. Whew!! That was a close call. Merits to the good Samaritan. She had so much information stored on her phone. She now carries it in a zipped compartment. It is a good lesson. She is a well seasoned world traveler with good travel skills and became too comfortable in her environment and she knew better. She may live here, but she is still a foreigner and looks like an unsuspecting tourist just walking down the street listening to her music. She says now that she realizes that the residents act differently than the tourist and now can usually tell the difference. And, BYW, Phoebe is doing VERY well with her Mandarin now. It is fun to ride in their car and listen to her and her driver chat. He likes to practice his English with Phoebe and learn new words and she likes to practice her Mandarin with him and learn new words. He speaks mostly English to her and she speaks mostly Mandarin to him. I just sit and listen. They are both doing great! There are many more interesting things about the expats here that I’ll talk about some other time.

I am using my daughter’s computer now. My laptop crashed more than a week ago. (And, of course, it’s a MacIntosh!) I took it to the Geek squad at a large BEST BUY here in Shanghai, but after waiting for what seemed like all afternoon, they told me they couldn’t fix it. It froze up and wouldn’t do anything. I finally found an iStore and took it there. They told me I needed a new hard drive! EEEEEK! NO I DON”T HAVE ALL OF MY INFORMATION BACKED UP!! Only part of it. They told me they would put in a new hard drive for 1,000 RMB. Mmmmm… Not a bad price. Okay, do it and how long will that take? Just a couple of hours, but don’t do any updates after we install this. Oh great! A new hard drive with black market software that I can never update. Well, it will have to do until I get back to the states and reinstall all my own software. Next day, I go back to pick it up and I am told that the hard drive was not the problem after all. They will have to send it to the “service center”. That was a week ago and I haven’t heard anything yet. I called this morning and after some waiting and then hesitation on the salesman’s part, I was told they would call me back. I’m waiting. Long story short, I have no email addresses unless I can remember yours or you have sent me an email within the last week that I can recover when I check email from another computer. So, everyone please send me your email address and I promise I will back it up this time. (This would not be a problem if I were home.) Would love to hear from you. Later………. JL

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Photos

On top of Fansheng bridge
Phoebe, Kendra and Joan, (Kathy took the pic)

Typical boat.
This is a typical boat used to ferry passengers around on the water, (mostly tourists) for a small fee.

Tea anyone?
Phoebe, Joan and Kathy having tea on the waterway. (Kendra taking pic)

Comments

[angel]

totally cool!
Joan I so excited for you and jealous! :) Your trip sound so exciting and I can't wait to here more. I truly think this all is a chance in a life time and your giving me the opportunity to go on this journey with you in some ways. thank you and enjoy. love angel