China and heading for home!

Today we headed off to Zhouzhuang, which is 85k from Shanghai, with Zhouzhuang dating back 700 years from the time of the Ming Dynasty. 

Fortunately the Cultural Revolution did not do too much damage apart from carvings being defaced and broken, and it is now known as the ‘Oriental Venice’.

It was the first of what the Chinese call water villages to open to the outside world.  There are now twelve that can be visited.  Zhouzhuang is located in the town of Kunshan and it is surrounded by three large lakes.

The ancient residences are well preserved and it is always a great feeling to walk over a bridge that was built in the fourteenth century.  We visited Shen House, which was built in 1742 by a descendant of Shen Wansan, who was the first big cheese in the region, with land and wealth in abundance!  A series of rooms are connected by passageways and aisles that twist and turn.  The residence had its own watergate (It would have been marvellous if Richard Nixon had visited the place back in 1972, but it only became really known in the mid eighties).

We took a ride in a Gondola and passed many interesting sites around the village, from people washing out pots, coat-hangers (true!) and other items. On a boat we passed, one older bloke stood out because he was wearing the old communist party uniform that everyone used to wear when a lot of book waving used to happen!

Which brings us neatly full circle in Chinese history. The residents of Zhouzhuang fully realise that thar’s gold in them thar tourists and there are some great gift-buying opportunities here.  I bought myself Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book whilst others secured watches which had a smiling Mao with his arm going up and down as part of the operating mechanism.  I deeply regret not securing one myself!

We could have collected fabulously detailed little sculptures (framed in glass no less) of Bush, Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.  How could you not laugh – Communism and the West is being opening sold as a capitalist enterprise in a Ming Dynasty village, in a ‘communist’ country!

Zhouzhuang is also a big hit for domestic Chinese tourism, and it appears that anything that can be taken from the nearby lakes is popped into a fish tank for customers to say “Can I have that one?” and then proceed to the attached restaurant inside an old residence or other structure! So you will pass as many tanks as gift and other shops in the village.

Only down side is that it was a cold overcast day (unfortunately the same and worse in Shanghai) as we are visiting in the middle of winter.  The Chinese countryside in winter is similar to the UK, just a little bit dreary with little green stuff & colour around.  Add dark and cloud and it doesn’t present the best of scenes!  I am sure that there would have been an even greater impact on the group if it had been a nice summer’s day and all the greenery and flowers were out!

The trip there and back was interesting, as we drove out of the urban area and into the rural area around Shanghai.  The lakes are huge, and there is a 6th century built canal over 1,000k long that travels north-south through China.  The canal was built to help transport goods, as all the major rivers in China flow in an east-west direction.

Most of the roads appear to be concrete rather than bitumen, but I am not sure if this is representative of other areas in China.  At one point, as we were reaching the edges of suburbia, it was just like driving out past the new housing estates being developed around most Aussie cities, there were even some stand-alone houses, though mostly the housing ranged from small shared places to four and five story apartments.  The general rule seems to be the closer in to the city centre, the higher the apartment blocks!

We passed all sorts of motorised transport; some Monty Python designed beauties to bikes and trucks, but mostly cars. In the urban area, modern cars rule and also to a great extent in at least the rural area we drove through.  There is no shortage of signage along the roads, all good signs (pun intended!) for the future.

A night at the opera & more…

We have had two grand finishes, one in Chengdu and now one in Shanghai.  Firstly Chengdu.  We attended the Sichuan Opera on our last night in Chengdu. I think I’ve used up all my superlatives, but the Sichuan Opera was pretty amazing.  There were a number of individual performances, each superb in their own right.

These ranged from exquisite musical performances, puppetry and comedy (involving an head-balancing candle number), to spinning a table using only your feet, ‘fire spitting’ and the grand finale called ‘Face Changing’, pictured.

Basically, performers remove a mask to completely change their face in both colour and expression, faster than the eye can see.   It appears as though a face simply changes instantly and all you can do is gasp in astonishment!  Very memorable and not to be missed on a trip to China, if you have the opportunity.

Interestingly, we were not packed in theatre style, it was more big chairs and tables to sup tea and munch on local goodies whilst enjoying the show.

The big shanghai finish has fittingly been left to be the last news item in my china reports – not that I’m trying to ride the shirt-tails mind you!! We went along to the acrobatic show at the Shanghai Centre Theatre, about 30 mins drive from our hotel.

A series of acrobatic acts left us all, well… at a loss for words.  I am not going to detail each act and take away all the fun.  Lets just say that this show would probably always feature in anyone’s top three Shanghai highlights, and most likely at Position no. 1 more than not.  The grande finale for this show was unbelievable.

Words? Breathtaking, astounding, mind-blowing, startling and stone the bloody crows!  If you don’t see the show when visiting Shanghai, all I can say is “Where the bloody hell were you?!”

So that’s it for our China trip, so many great experiences.  The group really bonded and like the Sydney Olympics, we had the best educational ever.  Now it’s on to the plane and back to OZ. I’ll do one final wrap up article after I’ve recovered from perhaps too much Baijiu and Chinese food….!

If we were back in Juizhaigou, you would now be hearing the strains of the first karaoke song in the distance………….!

A Report by Kinglsey Mason in China reporting for Travel Mole