Explore #1: Zhu Jia Jiao

Writing this as I steam in my home. We are almost in the height of summer in Shanghai and the weather is truly overbearingly humid and hot. This coming from a Singaporean who loves hot weather, says a lot. But no matter, summer means shorts, tee shirts, sandals - all light Singaporeany clothes which we all love to wear. And summer also means getting to visit places which could be difficult or pointless in winter. So today I went on a little trip outside of Shanghai with Michelle to a place called 朱家角 (Zhu Jia Jiao, henceforth referred to as ZJJ). What is ZJJ you may ask? Wiki says: "The settlement of Zhujiajiao dates back to the Yuan dynasty, when it was an important marketplace for the surrounding countryside. It was finally granted township status during the reign of the Emperor Wanli of the Ming dynasty. Conveniently placed at the intersection of a number of local rivers, the town prospered through trade in rice and cloth, transported on boats from the surrounding countryside right to the houses of the Zhujiajiao merchants." If this is too difficult to understand, go watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon again. A bit wrong dynasty but almost la.

The town is a 1 hr bus ride out of Shanghai and the main sight is the ancient water village with meandering canals and buildings that have existed since the Ming and Qing dynasties. Ok, so the town was formed 1,700 years ago - waahhh!

Reminds you of our bus tix?



The bus ride was icky la. Couldn't help wondering how long the seat covers hadn't been washed, or if there were creepy crawlies living under the covers, or if the sensation on my leg was of something crawling up and if this is the reason why most of the Chinese on the bus were not in shorts - so that bare skin didn't touch the seats?! okok, not the point of the post today.

So, after a somewhat torturous and sleepy ride, we arrived at ZJJ, and promptly sat ourselves down in a ancient-looking kopitiam. The kind where you expect people in ancient Chinese attire to arrive and put their swords on the table, and then to yell 小二！And some fight will break out with swordplay ending up on the water, atop trees - you get the drift (pun intended!).

Adding to the throwback in time, a trio of singers (two aunties, one uncle and one erhu) us and asked if we would pay for them to sing. And so we did - RMB10 for 2 songs. They had a list of songs, including a "hot hits" list. We picked 茉莉花 (Jasmine Flowers) and 小城的故事 (Story of a Small Town).  Frankly, the songs sounded the same but who cares?

Ming Ming specifically warned me not to jump no matter how tempting... hmm..

Took a walk around and crossed a number of bridges. There are 36 ancient stone bridges in total and all are still in use. So beautiful.

To get from one end to another, we decided to take a boat ride at RMB60 for the hire of a boat (a bit like a sampan). As our cruise soundtrack, I played 周杰伦 (Jay Chou) on the iPhone (Ms Woo would approve!). It would have been rather romantic except I was with Michelle. Ha ha..



We took another break along the way at one of the more modern cafes. There are a number of cute little cafes, reminiscent of Jiu Fen in Taiwan. We took shelter in this one that had air conditioning... ahhhh....

When we left around 5pm, the sun was just setting and the scene was so beautiful.  We forgot about the heat, did not care about the lady washing her mat, paid no attention to the trash floating past us and just focused on savoring the moment in silence.  

Reflection of the setting sun on the gently rippling waters of Zhu Jia Jiao - the stuff of ancient poetry .

xoxo,

Steaming tao sar pau Tracy