Zhujiajiao-Watertown

 On Thursday, Jen had the driver take us to a watertown about 90 minutes out of Shanghai.  There are various villages called water towns because they were built several centuries ago on the deltas of the Yangtze river.  Their economies were based on the river and the ability to transport on the canals.  Jen's driver told her this was the best village to visit so he drives their guests to this destination.  After we dropped Will off at school, we made our way to Zhujiajiao.  Traffic was fairly heavy so it took about 2 hours.

 The locals have maintained their village as a tourist destination.  Lots of tour buses were lined up to drop visitors off.  There were also some school groups there visiting.  Little shops and restaurants line the canal.  People can pay to ride the boats.  After a scary experience on a speedboat in New Zealand, June is adamantly opposed to riding in a boat so we chose to browse the shops and walk.  It was delightful.  We saw some shops with unique wares that we hadn't seen in the city.

 One shop that I would have purchased their services if we had more time was this "foot massage" shop.  The massagers are hundreds of little fish that eat the dead skin off from your feet for 20 minutes.  They would have had a true feast on my feet.  We saw this at the beginning of our visit.  I had hoped to have time to "feel the tickle" but since we needed to return in time to fetch Will from school, I wasn't able to  take advantage of that opportunity.

 These Chinese people were so enamored with June.  I am not certain if she spoke Chinese to them.

 There were a couple of shops where the keepers were making combs, forks and other useful items from the bones of animals skulls.  I believe this woman was making combs from cattle skulls.  They really don't waste anything in this culture.  They use it all.

 This woman was hand embroidering pictures of the local scenery.  She said that the picture we purchased was made by someone in her family.  I don't know if that is true but it was pretty and not expensive.

 We noticed several of these tiny Chinese elderly people sitting on their stools in the pleasant weather.  Perhaps their family members managed nearby shops and they kept their seniors close to keep an eye on them.

Jen remembered this shop from a previous visit.  We had purposely waited to purchase silk comforters and scarves until we got to this shop as Jen and Heather had negotiated really good prices previously.  We weren't disappointed.

 June and I really liked these warm, very soft muffs.  Maybe next time I will purchase one.  I was running out of room in my suitcase by now.

 This was a very picturesque village and it was fun to see it.  Steve ended up letting a lady polish his shoes for about a dollar.  Maybe it was even less.  Most people were wearing athletic shoes so the shoe shiners didn't have too many customers.  Steve felt better allowing her to work.

Chinese Markets

Part of the fun of visiting other countries is to check out their markets, their food and homes and to try to come to a better understanding of how they live.  The markets in China run that gamut from high end malls with shops which include very fancy bakeries to little street side stands and markets called wet markets where they not only sell produce but also meats, fish and other edibles.
The fancy bakeries sold those buns pictured above which were called pork floss.  They are a kind of bread covered in finely shredded pork.  We didn't sample any but they definitely looked interesting.

                            This lady is making the pork floss.

This escalator takes patrons upstairs in the huge Carrfour store.  Jen buys some of her paper goods and toiletries there.  We bought some produce but Jen usually purchases it elsewhere.  It is like a huge department store which seams to carry almost anything you can think of.  We like to go there because it is so interesting and also because that is where we have bought the cooking pans that we love so much.  Once again, we purchased a ceramic pan.  I love those pans.

We got a big kick out of this display of toilet seat covers.  Stores sell them as the weather turns colder. We thought they were hysterical until Jen and Taylor explained that even in the more expensive homes, they don't use insulation so it gets cold in the winter.  Some of the people who live in the small cement homes on the narrow streets don't  have any heat at all so sitting on a seat with a cover makes the experience more tolerable.  We won't complain and I won't laugh at their ingenuity.

 Jen weighs the produce before taking it to the check out.

I know that Jen texts the driver but he seemed to know right where we would be and was usually there waiting for us.  We only had a very short wait a couple of times.  That was impressive to us.

We spent about an hour walking through the narrow streets in Puxi near Jen and Taylor 's second Chinese apartment.  I called it THE MAZE.  It seemed to go on forever and we were so happy that Jen seemed to know which way to turn to eventually make our way out to a main thoroughfare.

This place was gutted in preparation for new tenants.  Most people on these small streets live behind their shops.  This space will probably include living space and a shop on the street.

       We were surprised to see this used appliance store on a corner in the maze.

Many of these narrow streets still somehow handle people riding scooters and bicycles.

Here is one of the fancy bakeries in the mall where they sell the pork floss.

This is a display in Carrfour of various types of raisins.  I wouldn't have wanted everyone pawing through the raisins as they sorted through for the best.  That just wasn't appealing to me.