September Journal

This morning, we had breakfast at the Sofitel Hotel (did I spell that right?) and had eggs, toast, and pancakes. So good! Then we loaded our bags onto the bus for the 2 hour ride to Zhouzhuang. I've neglected to mention the new members of our group. Kitty, Robert, Michelle, and Darren have left to go back to their respective homes, and we have gained 4 new people:

Although we'll miss Kitty, Robert, Michelle and Darren, it's nice to have some new faces on the trip.

We arrived in Zhouzhuang around 11:00, and lugged our backpacks for a few blocks into an historical part of town where cars weren't allowed to go. Our hotel is a quaint little place with just enough rooms for all of us, and since Jon and I were the last to get up the stairs we got the smallest room and the only one without a bathroom. But that's no problem because it's only for one night. We're sharing a bathroom with Anne and Robert, whose bathroom is accessible both from their room and from the hallway.

Jon and I set out to enjoy the little town. Zhouzhuang is a beautiful town with canals and waterways. As Lonely Planet (pg 351) says: "Zhouzhuang offers a step back in time into what is believed to be the first water town of China. Established over 900 years ago, Zhouzhuang boasts 14 bridges and over 60% of its buildings are from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties... The cobbled lanes of the Old Town are pedestrianised and picturesque, confirmed by the many painters seated alongside the canals. Many of the locals continue to go about their day, sitting on their steps and making lace or fishing in the canals with cormorants."

Jon, Grant and I went for a boat ride on the canal, which was about 25 minutes and traveled underneath bridges and past little houses. It was lovely. The boat was a long wooden thing with a huge oar at the end, with which the woman only paddled a little. We passed a bridge called the "Shuan Quiao" (Double Bridge) which is supposed to be symbolic of the joining of the two parts of China.

After the boat trip, Jon and I went to lunch at a little place on the waterfront. We ordered the pork - which the man obviously recommended seeing that he continued to point at it and smiled and nodded - and also the eggplant. The pork, it turns out, is actually pork shoulder and is a local specialty. Many of the little shops around town sell it in prettily decorated packages. Neither Jon nor I are big pork fans, but we decided to try it anyway. It was served to us on a big bone and in some sort of gravy. The meat itself was very good and incredibly tender, but most of the dish was inedible to most westerners because it was 70% fat. Looking at the other table of diners, however, showed that no one else thought so. This guys were eating the entire thing - fat, skin, and everything! We just couldn't do it. But the meat and the eggplant were enough for us, so we asked for the check, which was an expensive 90 Yuan! We were charged 80 Yuan ($10) for the pork, and we'll never know if that was a "foreigners price" or not, but you really can't argue about it after you've eaten it.

We wandered around to go into some of the local sites. One 60 Yuan ticket gave us access to all the sights, so we bought two tickets and went first into the Hall of Shen's Residence. This has seven courtyards and 100 rooms, each connected to a main hall. The downstairs area wasn't very large, but the upstairs extended on top of many of the local houses and we could look down into all the courtyards. The furniture inside was beautiful, and all the rooms were decorated in woodwork.

The 60 Yuan ticket, by the way, lists all the sights we could see in town. Unfortunately, the list was in Chinese so the only way we could figure out where to go was to compare the characters on the map with those on the tickets! Easier said than done. But we managed. Other places we went to were:

Quanfu Pagoda	A large pagoda that looks old and ornate from a distance, but when we got there we found out that it was built in 1987. We climbed up to the top and looked out at the view.
Chenzu Taoist Temple	Much like the Buddhist temples but for Taoism. Very small, but the courtyard was very peaceful.
The Former Residence of Yechucang	Yechucang was apparently a famous local and this was his house. It wasn't very interesting, actually. And most of the text inside was in Chinese so we didn't quite get the gist of it.
Mi House	Similar to the above, something about 3 men in a tea shop. Inside the house there were statues/mannequins of 3 men sitting around a table, but we still don't know why!
Chess Museum	We wandered into the chess museum, which was interesting because it had chess pieces from thousands of years ago. Chinese Chess is very different from the chess that we know, but it's clear that the Chinese play both kinds. At the end of the museum was a button that said, "Press Here for English Summary". So Jon pressed it and the entire museum reverberated in a loud English voice. The funny thing is that we really didn't want to stick around to hear it, so we ducked out and left it for everyone else.
Hall of Zhang's Residence	Although this was smaller than the Hall of Shen's Residence, it was beautiful because of its gardens. The little canals extended into the courtyards of the house and they are accessible by the main canals. Sort of like having a circular driveway, I think!

Jon and I bought a Mah Jonng set! A little shop along the waterfront had old and new sets, and we found one we liked made of bamboo and bone. It looks very old, although we don't know how old and the lady didn't tell us. I hardly think it's antique, but it's very pretty and the figures on the tiles are colorful and etched into the bone as opposed to just painted on. We were happy with the price we got (135 Yuan, about $17).

So Grant, Mel, Ken and I sat at a table in the courtyard of the hotel and played Mah Jong until dinner time. Ken wasn't there for the initial lessons, but he picked up the game pretty quickly. And Grant still tries to make up what we call "Grant Rules" in which he claims the rules are different from what we learned so he can make the plays he wants! For example, he wants to Chi off of anyone when the ENTIRE WORLD knows you can only Chi off the person to your left but can Pong off anyone. Silly Grant!

We were so engrossed in our game that much of the rest of the group went off to dinner on their own. Around 7:00 we went to meet them at the restaurant which Grant had recommended. Unfortunately, they weren't happy with the food and told us that we should probably go somewhere else. We hemmed and hawed about it until a rat ran across the floor and that made our decision for us - off we went! We wandered about town for a while, surprised at how many places were closed. But Zhouzhuang is really a day-trippers site because it is so close to Shanghai. At night, the town is deserted. We finally found a place that was open and had food that sounded good, so Grant, Anne, Robert, Laurel, Mel, Ken, Jon and I settled in to a very yummy dinner.

After we walked back to the hotel, we met up with the other diners and sat and talked on the benches of the canal outside our hotel. There were little boys making paper boats out of newspapers and floating them in the canal, laughing outrageously when they sank. We got quite a kick out of watching them and they definitely enjoyed the attention.

Ken, Mel, Grant, Jon and I sat back at the table to play more Mah Jong. The game is only for 4 people, so we alternated the fifth player in as Jon, Grant or I went to take showers. At one point, a woman from the hotel watched us play and made some sort of comment to indicate that we were going in the wrong direction. Oops. But we're getting good, even if we don't know how to score or what the East/West/North/South positions have to do with the game. We played until 11:00 and then went to bed.