Visit to Zhujiajiao

Today, Yiming, Young Scott, and I visited an ancient water town near Shanghai known as Zhujiajiao. This is a beautiful Venice-like city with a history of more than 1700 years. The most famous sights are the many bridges in different shapes and styles, like wood, stone, and marble. But also equally notable are the ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the local museums that highlight the history and current art from the area, and the many local eateries and shops.

We crossed the Fangsheng Bridge (Setting-fish-free Bridge), which is the is the longest, largest and tallest stone bridge in both Zhujiajiao and Shanghai. We took a gondola ride though many of the passageways, and went under another famous bridge known as the Huimin Bridge (Veranda Bridge), which is the only wooden bridge in the town.

We visited beautiful Shu mansion built around 200 years ago, which is now mostly art museum, but also part residence. Still living here is one of the decedents of Shu, a very nice woman who insists that everyone who stops in her house sign the guest book. We also visited another amazing mansion that contains the incredibly beautiful Ke Zhi garden.

After stopping for lunch at a local restaurant, where we had wonderful local dishes of Mandarin fish, spicy tofu, fresh greens, hot and sour soup, lotus root, and spicy beef vegetable soup, we stopped at many of the local shops.