Venice of the East

Many towns in China claim to be the Venice of the East but I think this one really is! Xitang is a small water town about an hour, by bus, away from Shanghai. Today was the last of my five days off and I didn't know what to do with myself. I've had this dream of biking around West Lake in Hangzhou, but my roommate Justin suggested going to Xitang instead. So I did!

I got up this morning and took a bus from Shanghai to Jiashen and then hopped on a local shuttle bus to take me to Xitang. I had read that it was not obvious exactly where the old part of the town was but I gathered if you walked around you could find it. My first clue that it was near was a large billboard advertising the beauty of the old part of the town. The billboard also reminded everyone that Xitang was used for the filming of some of the scenes of a recent James Bond movie. After wandering around for a bit I managed to stumble upon the old town. Wow. It was really beautiful. 'They' were right. It really was the Venice of the East. Normally, there is a fee to get into the old town but once again it pays to be in the off season. Not only were there no crowds, there was no entrance fee! And the weather was spectacular, not like the oppressive heat you get here in the middle of summer. I spent most of the afternoon just walking around, taking pictures, and enjoying the peace and relaxation.

Walking around Xitang is like stepping back in time. The only vehicles in the old part of the town are boats that run up and down the canals and the odd bicycle. Everyone else is walking. As in the rest of China, there were numerous groups of people playing mahjong or cards. Everyone seemed really relaxed. Even the shop owners didn't really hastle me. Maybe because it's the slow season. Maybe they need a break too from constantly hounding foreigners to buy there wares.

Here are a few pictures. If you want to see more you can check them out, and some more of my adventure on Yellow Mountain at www.flickr.com/photos/china-su.