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| Tongli Water Town |
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| Xitang Water Town |
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| Tongli Water Town |
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| Our Tongli Gondolier! |
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| Cormorants – Tongli Water Town |
Our third day in Shanghai we took an excellent full-day tour to two of the beautiful Water Towns, Tongli and Xitang, near Shanghai, with Miki Tours. I booked this tour through Viator, as I did many others, as I couldn’t find the name of the tour company until after I booked, but if we go back I will definitely book tours directly with Miki Tours, and I suggest you do, too! (Being in the hospitality industry and owning the Elkhorn Inn, we know that third-party booking services often charge exorbitant fees which can really hurt small businesses, so we like to book direct when possible…) Miki Tours has well-deserved 5-star ratings on Trip Advisor, and their Customer Service was excellent; when our tour date had to be changed (due to Chinese New Year) they contacted us immediately, and we wound up picking an even better tour than the one we’d originally booked! (I read EVERY tour description on Viator! LOL) We had a wonderful day with our charming and knowledgeable guide, Zoe Zhao, exploring two water towns and eating delicious food! This was a private, all-inclusive tour with an excellent car and driver, and we started our tour in historic Tongli, strolling the charming cobblestone streets full of shops and cafes, and enjoying the historic buildings, lovely gardens, and koi ponds. We had a delicious lunch in a chic restaurant at the Blossom Hill Hotel, where Zoe ordered us a feast of Mandarin “Squirrel Fish”, “Champion Hoof” Roast Pork, and Pickled Lotus Root, and then we took a wonderful little boat through the canals- a totally romantic and fascinating ride that literally put us in the “storybook” China of my novel-reading dreams! The water towns are like mini Chinese Venices, complete with gondoliers who steer the little boats expertly down the canals and under bridges; it would be a delight to spend a holiday just exploring them! Ah, well- at least we had a day!
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| Our Gondolier, enjoying her job! |
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| Our back-up Gondolier! |
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| Cruising on the canal, past the cormorants… |
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| Our delicious lunch with Zoe at the Blossom Hill Restaurant |
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| Making blown-sugar animals… |
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| The New Trend: Cultural Revolution Retro… |
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| Yummy street food… |
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| Dan and the Rickshaw! |
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| Tongli |
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| Pulling up to dock… |
We stopped to watch a bit of Chinese Opera being performed at an outdoor theatre in one of the squares, and loved the fact that it wasn’t being presented for foreign tourists- we were the only ones present! Hundreds of Chinese were enjoying their own culture and heritage, and were as enthralled by it as we were!
One of the odder things we stumbled across- but fitting in with the “retro” Mao fashion statement that seems to have taken over all of China- was a Museum of Mao, chock full of Cultural Revolution memorabilia and posters, and topped off by life-size cardboard figures of Hot Cultural Revolution Soldier Babes that one could pose with…
There were so many delicious looking things being made on the street that it boggled the mind- but it’s simply impossible to try them all!
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| On our Xitang Gondola! |
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| From our boat… |
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| An artisan making bone combs… |
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| Dan & our guide, Zoe |
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| Koi… |
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| Enjoying the opera… |
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| Making pretty toys from leaves… |
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| Xitang… |
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| Arriving in Xitang… |
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| Xitang |
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| Xitang |
From Tongli we then went to Xitang, where we had the afternoon and evening to enjoy wandering through the town, and then see all the glorious lights come on at dusk- and have more foodie fun!
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| Photo op… |
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| Xitang riverwalk |
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| Dan getting meat-on-a-stick! |
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| Yum! |
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| A young musician… |
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| Xitang |
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| Baiju tasting in Xitang |
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| Our Baiju, being bottled for us… |
We meandered through the side-streets and peeped into many of the shops, saw artisans and craftsmen at work, and “people watched” the many families enjoying a holiday with their children as they bought them treats and toys, and rented traditional costumes (I wanted to do this, but there wasn’t time…) for them to dress up in, so they could be photographed on the picturesque canals… We were, again, basically the ONLY Western tourists present; Xitang & Tongli were both packed with tourists, but all Chinese! Knowing our predilection for food and booze, LOL, Zoe took us to an artisan Baiju (traditional Chinese rice wine) distillery shop, where we (of course) had to sample all their different & delicious Baijus, and buy some to take home! Each one was bottled for us in a lovely ceramic vase that was a work of art in its own right! The prices were quite low (thank you, Zoe!), and I wish we could have bought a case to take home for gifts!
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| Shopping! Buying some amazing Xitang condiments! |
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| Xitang |
We LOVE to sample street food and taste things in the markets when we can, and China’s street food stalls often give out samples of their wares- to tempt you into buying, of course! As we were on a private tour we could stop and taste (and buy!) delicious things, such as the locally made hot chili pastes, and a mushroom condiment that is To Die For! That, for us, is one of the best things about a private tour- there’s no being rushed from place to place, endlessly disappointed that you can’t stop somewhere to taste something, or buy something, or take a photo… In Xitang we bought several delicious condiments at a street stall where the staff was kind enough to let me taste every yummy thing they make! Now, before we finish them off (I am doling out the mushrooms like a Controlled Substance, LOL), I’m trying to find out exactly what they are, in the hope that my BFF Cindy, who is Chinese and still lives in NYC, might be able to source these things for us in Chinatown!
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| Magic Mushrooms! |
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| Our yummy Tongli treats… |
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| Making THE best chili condiment… |
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| Xitang at dusk… |
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| The gold candy-puller… |
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| Having a beer in Xitang… |
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| Xitang, from our pub’s balcony… |
We had beers on the balcony of a cute pub on the water as the sun went down and the lights of Xitang came on… and then went for a delicious dinner with Zoe, where we were served salad in a fabulous hanging glass globe that poured out a gorgeous white cloud- from a hidden stash of dry ice! Neither Dan nor I had ever seen a foodie presentation like this before, and it’s just the sort of “wow” factor I’d love to recreate for a special dinner at the Elkhorn Inn!
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| The Smoking Salad Globe… |
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| A delish dinner in Xitang… |
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| Xitang a-glow… at night on the water… |
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| Xitang at night… |
As we were heading back to the car it began to rain, and so we got to do something we both really wanted to do- take a rickshaw! Zoe hailed us rickshaws, and zipping through Xitang in a rickshaw in the neon-lit night was a Lot of fun- and showed us that there is SO much we wished we’d had time to see and explore! Gotta go back!!
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| Rickshaw in the rain! |
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| The Neon of Xitang… |
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| Wild, swinging Xitang… |
Next up: More Shanghai fun, and the Bullet Train to Beijing!
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