I forgot to take the following pics so I had to google for them online. Yay for the internet.
Reminders that Mr Cruise had been here were everywhere:
Tom doing his thing in MI3:
I tried to convince Viv to re-enact the scenes from MI3 with her acting out Tom Cruise's part. But she refused when she heard that I would have to try and resuscitate her using a fridge's electrical cables. Hmmmm I wonder what she was objecting to.
Xitang is famed for its waterways and bridges. I was a bimbo and forgot to take a pic of the bridges. Duh!
Background info:
Xitang is a famous town with thousands of years of history, lying in Jiashan County in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. From a bird's-eye view of the whole town, one sees blue water sparkling almost in every point the eyes touch and reflections of the houses in the water. The quiet water, handsome bridges, and the reflections in the early morning and the rosy sunset, fishing boats and the glistening lights in the evening, form an amazing picture full of a sense of poetry which can only be seen in the south lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In Xitang, there are well-preserved groups of buildings of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) with relatively high artistic quality and research value.
It is famous for its large number of covered corridors, lanes and bridges. The covered corridor is more than 1,000 meters long, attracting visitors from all over the world with its particular charm. Mostly, it is tile-roofed and built along the riverside, providing shelter for people to avoid either the baking hot sun or the rain. So, while walking in Xitang, you can never be caught in the rain or exposed to the searing sun. There are many lanes here, long and short, wide and narrow. Some are dark all the year round; some are used simply as the drain of two families; most of them were the main artery of the town in the old days. Among all the different lanes, the narrowest is about 80cm wide and provides space for only one person to pass through at a time. The lanes are like ropes connecting the whole town. There are a total of 122 lanes.
Enough with the blurb from travel websites. My take on the ancient town? It's utterly gorgeous. Pity about the hoardes of human beings crammed into every nook and cranny. But I still enjoyed every second of the visit.
Anyway on with photos that I can actually take credit for.
Recent addition to Xitang - entrance to the ancient village.
Cute trashbin that caught my attention:
We jumped in one of these boats for a tour of the town:
Our very healthy and young looking 62-year-old boatman:
People still live here despite it being a busy tourist attraction. A lot of them have converted the ground floor of their houses into restaurants or shops selling bits and bobs or in other cases, the whole house into an inn.
These were cormorans bred by the local fishermen. Apparently they would catch the fish and the fishermen then come along and collect the fish from their beaks.
Also saw 2 actors singing Chinese Opera with their own musicians playing along. They were playing on the other side of water for the viewing pleasure of the audience on this side. So I'm not sure how they get paid. Maybe they do it for the love of the music.
We got off the boat in the heart of Xitang (which meant a long trek back to the entrance. Drats!)
Jayden getting a snack straightaway again - Malt lollies for RMB5. He looked happy again.
These suckers were sticky!
Pretty! There were shops all along these corridors selling anything from hand made silk shoes (uncomfortable and ps I have HUGE feet by Chinese standards!) to Xitang local snacks to souvenirs. There were also lots of little teahouses and customers could then sit by the waters and gaze out and reflect on their lives. Very peaceful except for the highly likely scenario of one of the millions of passerbys unwittingly kicking you into the water.
Wandering down one of the many lanes. Oh yeah, I bought 2 beanies here. Viv bought 2 as well. I think Mum bargained them down to $150RMB in total. So about NZD30 for 4 handmade wool beanies. Score! PS Mum was my secret weapon. I unleashed her on the unsuspecting poor sellers once I made up my mind on what I wanted to buy. Cue evil laugh *horhorhorhor*
This was the narrowest lane in Xitang. I didn't venture inside as there were too many people wanting to take a photo.
After this we had to make our way back to the entrance..... on 4 inch heels in some idiot's case ie me. Ouchie... my feet hated me. All in all, a very cool visit. I really like chinese history and architecture so it was all good for me. Staying in one is a totally different story though.
Next up, Hangzhou.
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