Today we planned to visit Zhou Zhaung. This small town was considered a Chinese Venice in that it had a large number of canals running through it. It was located about an hour outside of Shanghai.
Mark, Eva, and myself met in Mark�s room. After getting our stuff together, we rode a bus to meet another friend, Ruth, at a hotel near the stadium.
After meeting Ruth, we got our bus tickets at the long distance bus station. We immediately got on the bus for our hour long ride to Zhou Zhaung. During the bus ride we saw lots of scenery. Mark pointed out that this is not like America. There seemed to be industrial complexes built near farms.
We arrived in Zhou Zhaung. Our bus parked in a gated parking lot. Near the gate of the parking lot, several Chinese people were scrambling to sell us maps of the place. They were anxious to get our money. I was somewhat tired of being harassed. Nevertheless Mark got a map.
We walked up a street where people were asking if we would like a ride in their bicycle cart. Mark said that last time he was here with his parents, they got dupped into getting a ride. The ride was so short they could have walked it. We opted not to make the same mistake this time and walked the way to the canal portion of the city.
As we entered Zhou Zhaung there were a bunch of sellers who had setup their tables with various trinkets. There were quite a few paintings and watercolors of the canals which I planned on buying later.
We saw a bridge going over the water. Eva and Ruth pointed out that this bridge was very important to the town, but didn�t elaborate in what way. This proved to be an ongoing issue with my trip. I always heard of something being significant or important to Chinese history without exactly knowing specifically why it was important.
Some older ladies had come out and were sitting on the bridge singing a song. I wish I had my video camera to tape their singing. It was very Chinese sounding.
I took several pictures of the canals and boats. As we were walking along, I noticed the sellers had live turtles for sale. I assumed these were for consumption.
We went to several of the ancient houses. Each time we entered a house, the attendant would take a holepuncher and stamp off our ticket.
After touring several of the houses we decided to have lunch. We went up to the 2nd floor of a restaurant. We ordered the famous pork leg that we had seen displayed at almost any food place in Zhou Zhaung. It looked almost barbeque. This food is what Zhou Zhaung is famous for. There was a lot of fat and grizzle on the leg. I found out that the Chinese prefer this type if meat. Eva really enjoyed her part of the fat. Mark and I opted for some good lean pork which tasted good.
I decided to get a picture of our dinner party. As I got up the man next to our table said that he would help take the picture. After taking the picture he started asking what we thought of Bush selling arms to Taiwan. We said that it was a complicated issue and wouldn�t discuss it any further.
After lunch we decided on a boat ride through the canal. At one of the boat stations we saw that there were 2 Chinese guys who were looking for a larger party to share a boat with. Together we made 6 which was enough for a boat. Our rower was a woman. I later noticed that most all the boat rowers were women. We rode up the canal for a leisurely boat ride.
Throughout the day we bought souvenirs. I decided I would like to have a rice picking hat. At the first place we stopped at, we asked how much for the hat. They said 5 Yuan. We noticed the price tag said 3 Yuan. The seller said that we were being charged extra because we were foreigners. Later on we did find an honest seller to buy the hats from. I wore mine for most of the day. The Chinese tended to think it was strange to see a westerner wear a traditional Chinese hat.
We got off the boat and were walking through town. We decided to go up to this large pagoda. I wanted to get my picture made beside it, but it didn�t appear that there was a good angle.
We climbed to the top for a view of the town. There seemed to be haze across the city. I am not sure if it was due to the weather or smog, but probably the latter.
On our way out I checked on prices of Mao�s Red Book. The seller wanted 120 Yuan for it. Eva, who was tired of foreigners being ripped off looked inside and pointed out to the seller that it cost 40 Jiao to print. Jiao are smaller units of Yuan. Needless to say I didn’t buy it.
After a while we decided to go back to Shanghai. I had already bought a large number of souvenirs including a few pictures and a dragon statue.
After we arrived back at Shanghai we decided to go shopping at some of Shanghai�s department stores. We decided to walk the long way to the stores. Along the way I spotted a McDonald�s and suggested we eat there for lunch. I was still looking for the elusive soccer uniform. After going up through several escalators we were still unable to find it. I also looked for some Star Wars figures for a friend, but was unable to find them either.