MY RECENT TRIP AT JIANSU WATER TOWN ZHOUZHUANG

Dear loving readers and visitors,

In my recent trip to the Jiangsu Water Town, we managed to get a bus ticket, though we arrived there almost 9:00 a.m. at Shanghai Stadium and were back there 3:30 p.m. on the same day.

Trust the photos, together with a short briefing below, will please your eyes and hearts.

Zhouzhuang is a town of Kunshan City - a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. The town is situated between Suzhou and Shanghai, 30 km the southeast of Suzhou and 60 km the southwest of Shanghai.

Dubbed 'Venice of the East', this town boasts the best preserved water town in China. The town has a history of over 900 years and most of residence and houses in the town were built in Ming (1368-1644) or Qing Dynasties (1644-1911).The rivers and streams in Zhouzhuang crisscross the town and are spanned by 14 stone-arch bridges constructed in Yuan (1271-1368), Ming, and Qing Dynasties. Many thanks to these waterways, the town avoided the chaos that might be caused by wars in the past dynasties and most of its architectural layouts have eventually remained intact.

There are many fantastic places and views to visit and see, including Twin Bridges, Fuan Bridge, Shen House, Milou Tower, and more. Many bridges in the town show unique bridge traditions different from other designs. The most amazing view displays a house where a boat can enter the property through the front gate and sail through the courtyard.

The public was aware of the beauty of Zhouzhuang in 1985 after the painting, the Remembrance of My Hometown, by Chen Yifei, was presented to Deng Xiaoping, the China’s most respected political veteran, by Mr. Armand Hammer, chairman in the board of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation of the United States.

The town has been listed with the highest rank of 5-AAAAA among the national tourist attractions, and in 2001 Zhouzhuang hosted the Informal Trade Ministerial Conference of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. This year the town has once again been selected as one of the top 50 China’s tourist attractions in a nationwide survey. There are more than 1 million tourists visiting the small water town each year.

The above photo of my friend taken at the compound of the water town.

Below please find some of the beautiful scenery at the water town.

Look at all the fishes swimming so freely in the water and their lives are so wonderful. It reminds me that to have life, we should not worry unnecessarily. It will hinder us from moving freely like the fishes. In this sense, we may forget how precious our lives are, by being caught in the rat race.

Thanks for your time and please give the above thought a serious consideration.

Have a fruitful day,

James Oh