"SERVE YOU WITH SMILING"

100 Bed Museum, Wuzhen

Wood carving on building, Wuzhen

Wuzhen street

Indigo cloth

View from canal boat, Wuzhen

Mops hang out along Wuzhen canal

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

"Serve You With Smiling" it said over the toll booth as we drove from Suzhou to the small water village of Wuzhen.  Because this area of China, just west of Shanghai, is near the mouth of the Yangtze River, there are several such "water villages", each claiming to be the Venice of China.  We chose Wuzhen because of its reputation as a center of indigo dyeing and woodcarving.  Near the entrance to this old town (e.g. tourist area) was the best public toilet we've run into (no pun intended) so far on the trip.  As we entered the building, we were physically nudged toward a bank of about 20 Western toilet stalls in a separate section.  Chinese women were sent to the squatter section.  Signage was priceless.

Visits to the "100 Bed Museum" and a collection of old wood carvings impressed us with the workmanship and beauty of the furniture and decorative items.  We saw an abbreviated demonstration of the preparation of indigo for dyeing, dyed fabrics hanging from 15-20 foot high drying racks, blowing in the breeze, and then headed toward the official shop to make some purchases.  The village itself is lovely, with white buildings with dark trim hanging over the narrow canals.  Small wooden boats ferry tourists back and forth through the town.  A market section sold tourist souvenirs and everyday items for the inhabitants.  Interestingly, there is no hotel or inn there, but there are restaurants where we had lunch.

Then it was off on the bus to Shanghai.  We entered the city about 2 hours after leaving Wuzhen, but it took nearly an hour to get to the hotel using elevated highways and ring roads.  Amazing sights (especially compared to Grand Manan!) to be seen, with hundreds of skyscrapers in Pudong (East/New Shanghai - developed from farmland in the last 20 years) and in West (downtown) Shanghai.  The city seems to stretch indefinitely in all directions, (over 20 million residents) although it is much more concentrated than Beijing.  Many, many residentiall buildings are more than 30 stories high.  We arrived at our hotel and were very impressed with both lobby and our rooms.  Beds seem SOFT after what we've been used to so far!  Unfortunately our computer wasn't very useful so thus this late post.