Shanghai Water Town

Seeing as nearly all the expats have departed China for the New Year's Holiday we decided to take advantage of the relatively unpopulated period to take a tour of one of Shanghai's famous water towns - Zhu Jia Jiao.  We hired a local - Lisa Zhu - whom we met at our Christmas Eve dinner to take us on the tour.  The town is about a 45 minute drive outside of downtown Shanghai and this was our last day with Driver Dong before he takes off several days for the holiday.  The weather was overcast and the temps were in the low 40's but there was no wind and every once in a while the sun would pop out and it made for a warm walk around the town.  The water town is about 400 years old and is filled with small shops selling everything from antiques to local food to live chickens.  We sampled much of the local fare including pork & rice cooked in palm leaves, smoked frog (only minus the head!), pork dumplings, baked sweet potatoes and sesame seed candy.  The boys were pretty good about trying everything with the exception of the frog.  Only Cynthia and I had that and I had to finish Cynthia's portion.  We took a boat ride around a few of the canals and Cynthia even tried her hand at rowing - no collisions or groundings - so it was a success.  On our way home we stopped at a local "junk shop" that Lisa knew about.  It is literally filled with old Chinese furniture, knick knacks, curios, doors, windows, carvings, sculptures etc.  You name it and I am sure this guy has it.  We will definitely be going back there to make some purchases.  He had quite a few items from the cultural revolution period that were engraved with Chairman Mao's slogans - small chairs, stools and doors that people would display in their homes to show their loyalty to the party.  Very interesting.  On Thursday we will be taking a tour of the French Concession in downtown Shanghai in the Puxi (poo-shee) region. 

I have posted a web album on Picasa and added a link on the blog if you'd like to check out all the photos from the watertown.  Take care and have a great day!