We arrived in Xitang after a 75 minute train ride (8Y), a 10 minute bus ride (4Y), and short walk. We paid the 65Y fee to enter the old town (ticket is good for 2 days) and started looking for a room for the night. The first place we inquired was full but the owner walked us a few hundred meters down the canal where we found a nice, first floor canal-side room for 110Y a night (about 14 dollars). This "hotel" is actually a bakery that rents out several rooms. Our room was on the canal with a back door that opened right to the water.
Xitang was crowded on this nice spring weekend with both daytrippers and overnighters. There were many more overnighters than I expected and proved false the assertion that "it's a quiet town at night after the tour groups have gone". In fact it was very busy after 5PM with late arrivals looking for places to stay and everyone else eating dinner or shopping. We ate dinner on the empty second floor balcony of a tofu restaurant.
After dark, it seemed that each tourist in town wanted to take a canal boat ride. There was actually a queue. We took the plunge and hired a whole boat for ourselves (100Y) for a relaxing, fun, and romantic 30 minute ride up and down the lantern lit canals.
On Sunday morning we visited the attractions missed the day before including a famous woodblock print artist's house, and then took the bus back to Shanghai.
Sun-Ling exploring our room's canal-side "entrance".
That's me below - sticking my head out from our room.
It was a beautiful spring day in Xitang and we strolled around town checking out the old buildings, temples, quiet back streets and canals, and the local fish market.
These ladies were sitting outside knitting slippers.
The local seafood market.
The Xitang Button Museum has a "live" exhibit showing how buttons used to be made from shells.
The town is lit up at night with red lanterns.
A busy side street near our hotel/bakery.
This is the kitchen of a mobile restaurant which was busy every time we walked by. Sun-Ling had to wait for several minutes to get this unobstructed shot. The red and blue canisters are full of hot water. That's the proprietor's business permit the upper right corner.
There were a couple of guys boating around with their cormorants doing shows for tourists. That is, the master has the birds repeatedly dive into water on his command to hunt for fish. The cormorants have a ring around their neck which keeps them from completely swallowing the fish they catch. Thus their master can retrieve the catch and sell for profit. These cormorants were on a long leash. While we watched, no fish were actually caught and retrieved.
Sun-Ling took this photo while we were waiting for breakfast to arrive at our quayside table.
And from a bridge the previous day
Reportedly, Tom Cruise will be seen running and leaping across the tiled rooftops of Xitang in MI III. Here is a shot of a tiled roof with afternoon shadows.
Fishing with batteries and electrodes: It is illegal in China as in most places but these guys were using electricity to stun fish in "almost city center" Xitang. Check out their rigs to hold batteries on straps over their shoulders, electrode in one hand, and net in the other.
"With a plentiful water supply and keen awareness of civic pride in their clean city, Xitang boasts the most mops per capita of any city in Zhejiang Province." - 2006 China Atlas of Tools and Acreage
Click on the links for more mops
mop on wood
mop on stone
two mops
mop and clothesline
five mops
three mops three brooms
mop shop
mop and scooter
red mop
A final shot from Xitang of a work boat chugging through a canal near the old town.
1 comment:
We loved Xitang. I am glad that you went back in the spring. I have to dig out my photos to see if I just happen photoed your bakery hotel room! :)
Have a great trip in Tibet. I enjoyed all the stories you two wrote, pretending that I was experiencing those in person.
Mei
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