27th November: Shanghai, China
We set off on the metro for the nearest water town to Shanghai, having abandoned plans to visit the apparently “easy to get to” places a little further out. One striking thing on the screens in the metro was an animated history of British colonialism in Australia! It was pretty accurate too and contained more information than most people are taught at school in the UK in just a few short minutes.
After a couple of changes, including one for coffee, we alighted into the windswept waterscape of the vast peninsular between the great rivers of the Yangtze and Qiantang. Rivers, lakes, and canals criss-cross these flatlands and for centuries have been the thoroughfares for local people and trade. I’m going to avoid the Eurocentric trope of everywhere being a Venice/Paris of the north/east/south/west, but Zhujiajiao is one of the myriad canal towns in this landscape.
Wow, it was chilly today! Luckily, it was sunny, but we’re not really equipped for the cold and will head south for warmer climes once and for all in a week or so. Fortunately, the midweek chill also meant very few tourists in this 5A-rated town which can apparently be overrun in peak season. Zhujiajiao itself was free to wander, although various buildings required a combined ticket. We stuck as much as we could to the back streets, although, like the majority of Chinese tourist sites, repetitive tat shops were everywhere. Bizarrely, there was one small street which had at least three cat cafes! Still, it was cool (very literally today) to see boats being punted under half-moon bridges and willows.
Before long, we retreated to the warmth of a little family-run restaurant. Kaja had a warming bowl of vegetable noodles, while I paired some veggie ‘beef’ with deliciously fresh soy and vinegar-soaked cucumber, and some rice.
We also took some lovely, sweet snacks – 2 crispy sesame puffs and a box of deep-fried glutinous rice doughnuts filled with plum and rhubarb.
It was definitely worth the trip out to see another side of life in the Shanghai area, especially given the metro was only £1.80 to go about 50 km. I’d maybe recommend coming here in slightly warmer weather though!
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