A China Holiday: Day One

Here is a scary but typical view of Shanghai traffic...lots of elevated "ring roads" jammed with vehicles. {Gulp.} We were in Shanghai for a conference B. was attending hosted by Fudan University. On the first day, the conferees' spouses were taken to Zhouzhuang, a water town filled with historic buildings and bridges; there are lots of little shops and cafes as well. We had very charming young English-speaking librarians from Fudan as our guides. We all rode a bus (along with a lot of other tourists), and we saw these things along the way.
Not sure what the sign says, but note the chicken...
Voilà ... some chickens.
We passed by lots of small and not-so-small bodies of water...
And saw lots of rice growing by the side of the road.
This is the entrance to the village. The sign says: "Art Village of Zhou Zhuang."

It's very picturesque.
Sort of a Chinese mini-Venice. We rode in boats, and our gondolier sang as he rowed.
Interesting to see the back of people's houses, which backed right onto the canal. See the little dog all curled up there?

It was very crowded.
Very very crowded.
Very very VERY crowded. These people are not waiting in a line--they're just milling about, coming into the village area.
Candles and incense...
Which were left as offerings at this temple...

The decoration on this building mimics beautiful Chinese papercuts. We saw craftspeople working...
Ladies sewing silk shoes by hand...
Weaving...
This lady is making candy, served all spun together on those two sticks (pure sugar!).
Those are thousands of tiny dried shrimp, which we saw all laid out behind people's houses as we took our boat ride.

Lots of lovely red lanterns.
And a not-so-lovely one.
We ate lunch in the village at a restaurant where they served a particular pork delicacy for which this village is known. Note the "Roasted Pig Hooves" on the menu above (no part of an animal goes to waste, which is actually quite a good thing in terms of being ecologically friendly). Not perhaps for everyone, but it's interesting to see what different cultures eat.
This fellow was about to become someone's lunch (not mine--"Wo chi su," which literally means "I eat vegetable," meaning "I'm a vegetarian."
Here is the lunch spread...quite sumptuous, as with every meal served to guests. Many dishes, many choices. Our hosts showed us the utmost hospitality at every turn.
Wait--how did I get a picture with not a single person in it?! Amazing...

We finished the day at a Hunan-style restaurant. A lovely start to the holiday!