Rural China

The Canal

The best way to explore China or for that matter any place in the world, is to take the help of a local friend. On Sunday, DH's colleague Y and her friend M took us to Zhujiajiao, a suburb or Shanghai so that we could experience rural China away from the glitz and glamour of Shanghai. An hour's bus ride from Shanghai, Zhujiajiao could not have been more different from Shanghai. It had many canals like Venice which were full of gondolas, boats and ferries intended at tourists, umpteen bridges and narrow streets full of small shops selling local crafts, food and clothes. After walking around a little bit, Y suggested that we have lunch.

Yummy food

I am amazed at the Chinese hospitality - Y and M are very young, probably a decade younger to us (we are getting old!)- and yet Y treated us to lunch, paying no heed to our protests. Earlier, they had even paid our busfare, as if spending the whole day to show us around and looking after Sunshine when we browsed the local shops was not enough! We had fish head, shrimps, two chicken dishes, bamboo, greens, rice, soup - too much to eat, which we know by now is the Chinese way of treating your guests well. These youngsters were extremely friendly and Sunshine also had a great time with them. We took a short boat ride in the canal which was lined with beautiful red lanterns from the spring festival. We bought a traditional Chinese outfit for Sunshine, a black bead bracelet to ward off the evil eye,a silk painting and a local snack made of peas. We wanted to buy some tea, but M offered to give us some as his hometown is very famous for good tea. Our attempts to bargain for a couple of beautiful chinese vases came to a naught and it was time to get back to the city.

After the hour long bus ride, we thanked our kind young friends and bid adieu with a promise to meet for dinner later in the week.