slacken the pace

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180rmb/night got me a spacious top floor back corner room in a three star hotel overlooking lush green Fushan park. Complete with complimentary teas, a shower cap, a bubble bath and a sauna to keep me entertained while the electrical storm pelted the city centre just outside my ridiculously large aquarium windows. I hadn't planned on Shaoxing but exiting from Huangzhou's bus station, having just arrived from small-city Tunxi and its quaint surrounding villages, I felt put off by the crowds and the thought that any kind of sightseeing in the area was going to be a pre-packaged sorta deal, myself just a cog in an endless chain of tourists filing around Xi Hu, reacting as prescribed to the many wondrous pavilions and temples and nearby tea plantations. Had it been the low season...
Shaoxin was a pleasant surprise. I felt little need to be a tourist, to pay the entry tickets, to tour the museums, to gawk at the temples, and finally in my third week of the vacation, I just relaxed. I wandered the neighbourhoods and ate good food at tables set out on the curb under the shade of billowy green trees. I sought refuge in a pavilion inside the park and watched another electrical storm rage overhead. I wandered the narrow alleys and followed the canals. And discovered the city centre, the old pagoda, the many teahouses, the old city wall, all became a Vegas light-show by night. A powerful display of what harnessing the Yangtze (and drowning countless village) has done for the country's energy.

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Photos

backpack Chenglish
so good a baseball I am sure I can make a fourbagger

backpack Chenglish
One cavn't enjoy Oneself if he is too tired