Zhouzhang -- The Water Village

After breakfast, we hopped in a car and headed to Suzhou, a small city an hour from Shanghai known for its canals and silk production. Even this far outside of Shanghai, the pollution hung like a fog over the countryside.



Our first stop was the 900-year-old fishing village of Zhouzhuang, the self-proclaimed “#1 Water Village in All Of China”. It’s viewed as one of the most picturesque spots in the vicinity of Shanghai, and the banks of the canals were littered with amateur and professional painters and photographers. It felt like colonial Williamsburg. We were able to see the preserved homes of wealthy officials and businessmen, and we got a small sense of the villagers’ lives in the 11th century AD.



A statue in bronze of China’s first millionaire, whose home we walked through.




Here’s his kitchen, his sweet door handle, his water buffalo (with and without rider) and three of his many ceramic Buddhas. He lived pretty well.



Here are the two of us at the water village. At this point, I was water villaged out. You'll have to wait for the unabridged vacation photos to see the other 200 pictures of us in front of bridges, boats and waterways in Zhouzhang. Get excited.