Vernice Of The East - ZhouZhuang Water Town

No. 1 Water Town Of China - Zhou Zhuang, offer a glimpse of life in ancient China
It lies at the middle between Shanghai and Suzhou, is an ancient town of Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, where abounds with rivers and lakes. So it is thought by many to be the best waterside town in China.This ancient town has a history of more than 900 years old with many houses built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Zhou Zhuang is clean, well-kept village filled with cobbled paths, arched bridges, tile roofs and tantalizing glimpses of old China. However, is a TRUE ancient canal town. Development stopped here about 500 years ago. The city has preserved the ancient village intact. No vehicles (including bicycles) are allowed. The "streets" are no wider than 2 meters and canals crisscross the entire village. It was a bright spring day, and the waterfront willows were just beginning to leaf, showing splashes of lime green in the cool May sunshine. Tourists floated by on boats, admiring the thousand-year-old stonework, especially the famous Shide and Yongan bridges, a pair of Ming-era beauties.

Travel on: May 2006
Admission Fees: RMB 100
Transportation Fees: RMB 40

Building in style

Glass wall in the dark! Walk pass a street and saw this glass wall which create a soft, elegant atmosphere for this intimate evenings in balmy weather! I can't say this is a great archi but instead, a good design.

Bread Talk

Do you spit and burp in public??

-- QUOTED --

BEIJING (Reuters) - Some Chinese tourists have been warned that while spitting, slurping food and jumping queues may merely disgust people at home, they are sometimes not tolerated abroad, Xinhua news agency said on Friday.

The increasing number of Chinese tourists travelling abroad may be a huge new source of income to destination countries, but that won't prevent complaints against individuals from reflecting badly on all of China, Xinhua said.

"The media in Singapore reports that hotel staff are upset with Chinese tourists spitting in their rooms and smoking in bed," it said.

"...Singapore airline companies also criticised Chinese tourists for talking loudly and being very rude. Even Hong Kong newspapers have pointed out that some mainlanders lack manners and social graces."

Beijing residents said last year spitting in public was what they could not stand most about living in the Chinese capital, followed close behind by dog owners who fail to clean up after their pets.

Beijing has launched a campaign to make its citizens more "civil" in the run-up to hosting the 2008 Olympics. Games organisers have repeatedly said the city needs to teach its people to stand in line, stop spitting and littering and generally be better mannered.

Past efforts to stamp out the spitting habit, like a 2003 campaign to help curb the spread of SARS, have not been very effective, partly because many people believe clearing the lungs and firing away is good for your health.

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Anji County, ZheJiang

Anji, China's Home of Bamboo, is one of most famous bamboo counties in Zhejiang province. It takes about 3 hours drive from Shanghai. Before the year 2002, Anji was isolated from the outside world because of the poor transportation, and for many years its economy remained undeveloped. Since then, Anji build highways connecting the neighbouring cities like HangZhou and HuZhou.

AnJi has China's largest bamboo nursery acknowledge by foreign experts as containing the widest and most complete variety of bamboo to be found.

The local people, mostly farmers, produce non-polluted products like bamboo shoots, alpine vegetables, flowers, and white tea which grown nowhere else in the country and are more expensive than the Dragon Well tea! For those who lives in town, sells bamboo handicrafts, bamboo floor mat, bamboo building materials and bamboo furniture. Things are very very cheap in AnJi... look at the photos, the mountains are form by bamboos! It's gorgeous...~

Travelling Date: April 2006