Canals of Zhouzhuang

The day trip today ended up at the water village of Zhouzhuang, typical of the history of the region and preserved to exemplify it. Even Shanghai in olden days was one of a collection of "water villages" in the area. Canals connected them to each other, even as far to the north as Beijing, and to the Huang Po and the Yangtze Rivers. Even today, the larger canals still connect to the rivers and carry barge traffic.

Zhouzhuang is typical for a tourist town in China - a commercial, tourist trap environment surrounding a truly interesting site with moments of calm beauty. The canals, stone bridges, and old buildings were really quite nice once you got past the souvenir shops and roasted pig leg shops.

Of course you can't always blame the locals for a less than ideal experience. One member of our tour group got into a bit of a shouting match with a Chinese tourist over who was blocking who in trying to take a picture in front of a stone bridge. Even if our guy wasn't at fault, which I suspect was not the case (ugly syntax -- translation: he struck both Lois and I as a bit of a jerk), the way he handled it certainly made it seem like and "ugly American" situation.