Shanghai Nights (5)

While talking with Peter on Saturday evening over dinner, he asked me what my plans were for Sunday. I had thought to go to Suzhou, a well known 'silk' city. Getting there would probably be a bit difficult but I could go by train. Peter suggested Zhujiajiao as an alternative. This is an old canal village situated near Tai Lake to the west of Shanghai. To get there I needed to get a taxi from the hotel to the Tourist Bus Station (Xujiahui Bus Station) and then ask for the right bus. To help me with this Peter kindly wrote the names in Chinese and Pinyin in my 'Best of Shanghai' Lonely Planet guide. He suggested that I start out earlyish from the hotel as it takes about an hour for the bus ride, so I duly set off on Sunday morning at around 8:30am. With less traffic on the road it only took about 20 minutes by taxi (about 35 Yuan) to the bus station which was already crowded by the time I arrived. The bus station is, of course, on the Shanghai side of the river beside a sports stadium. To get there we crossed the Nanpu Bridge again which gave me another opportunity to marvel at the engineering. Here is a Google Earth view of the on/off 'ramp' on the Eastern side of the Huangpu River.

On/off ramp of Nanpu Bridge, Shanghai side

Peter's notation in my guide book was invaluable when I 'asked' at the information desk how to get to Zhujiajiao. The very helpful girl pointed to the right queue and told me 'line 4'. As I joined the queue I noticed a young Chinese man and woman just in front of me reading an English guide sheet for Zhujiajiao so I asked them if they were also going there. They were, as it happened, and I discovered that Christopher and Laura were from Australia's Gold Coast and Mary, a Shanghai girl, was taking them to the village for the day out. Since we were going to the same place I knew that if I kept an eye on them then I'd be able to make sure to get off the bus at the right time. Once we were on the bus I sat with Christopher and we discussed his business trip to Shanghai. It turned out that he is a travel promoter for Dreamworld and was in Shanghai to promote tourism to the Gold Coast and, of course Dreamworld, at a travel trade conference.

The hour-long bus trip to Zhujiajiao (cost 12 Yuan each way) was along good roads with a mixture of residential development, light industrial and trade buildings, and what we would normally call 'market gardens' along the way. Two fo the roads were actually toll ways and the bus had to stop on each to pay the tariff. On reaching Zhu Jia Jiao the bus stopped at a large car and bus park which already had several empty buses waiting for the return journey as well as being pretty full of cars etc. As we got off Mary made sure that I understood that I needed to get back to the bus by 4pm at the latest otherwise I might have trouble getting back to Shanghai.

Zhujiajiao
Peter had described the village to me but I really had little idea of what to expect. Since I've been back home I looked up on the internet and came across a bit of a write up here (Zhujiajiao). Following the people streaming from the car and bus park I reached the entrance and my attempt to follow some locals in was thwarted by the ticket police. Ten Yuan later I was in the actual village and following the crowds down narrow laneways filled with food and souvenir vendors on both sides. Not far from the entrance was an Archaeological Museum so I paid 8 Yuan to have a wander around. There were many artefacts retrieved from archaeological digs in the local area, with finds dating back about 5000 years.

Out of the museum and wandering the crowded lanes again I avoided making eye contact with any of the souvenir sellers and ignored their entreaties to buy this that or the other with a dismissive, but not rude, wave of the hand. Periodically along the lane ways, there are openings off to the side where a bridge rises to cross a canal. Some of these bridges date back to the Ming Dynasty period which makes them many hundreds of years old, although they show no signs of disrepair. Here is a view from the top of the first one I climbed, showing the typical building structures along the canal.

Canal view, Zhu Jia Jiao

Its important to realise that, although much of the village is given over to tourism and extracting money from same, the buildings are also used as village dwellings. In the picture above, the Sampan style boat is one of many taking tourists to view the village from the canals. I didn't bother going on one of these boat rides as I was happy just to roam along at my own pace, even through the jostling crowds. You can also see from the picture that it was a beautiful day, although cool, and I even ended up with a bit of sunburn on the forehead. I didn't even think to take a hat with me.

View of boats for hire on the river, Zhu Jia Jiao
Note the solar panels on the roof across the river!

I was able to resist most of the street vendors offers to relieve me of some cash but I bought a soft hat for Pat and a couple of 'devil mask' fridge magnets. I wasn't attracted by the food on offer at the street stalls as it had a smell which I found strange.

Strolling on I came to one of the oldest and most famous of the bridges in the village - Fangsheng Bridge. Here is a shot of it from further down the canal.

View of Fangsheng Bridge, Zhujiajiao

As you can see there are many people crossing the bridge. Most of the tourist shops are situated on the right side of this canal/river. The restaurant where I had lunch is just over on the right although I approached it from one of the narrow streets behind the buildings. While I was wandering around the streets and canals on the left hand side prior to having lunch, I had seen a group of three women who were singing some local folksy song to entertain the tourists (for money of course). While I was sitting at lunch the same group of women wandered in through the restaurant and came to my table to sing to me - without invitation.

Lunchtime entertainment, Zhujiajiao

I let them sing their little song and gave them a couple of Yuan each for the pleasure. I had no idea whether that was enough but I was pretty sure it wasn't 'too much' as 2 Yuan is only about 33c Australian. They seemed happy enough though because they went on there way without trying to toss me in the canal.

After lunch I wandered along more crowded byways and ended up across another bridge. I was amused to see 'pop the balloons' attractions using plastic pellet guns, just beside the pedestrian thoroughfare.

'Pop the balloons', Zhujiajiao

This struck me as a possibly dangerous practice that could result in someone losing an eye or otherwise being caused injury. However, I didn't see anyway actually trying their luck so perhaps 'casualties' are as few as patrons!