For I know the plans I have for you...: Old Town

Old towns are quite common in China. Huzhou is located in the Yangtze River delta so their is an old town here in the Nanxun District which is the oldest part of the town and to the east about 45 minutes from where we live. We went to explore this old town about 2 weeks ago but I took the wrong lens for my camera so I don't have very many pictures. It was an interesting place. Reminded me a little bit of old western ghost towns where it is definitely geared to tourists. But we did get to see lots of old Chinese furniture and lots of interesting architecture. There were lots of wealthy people who lived here because of the silk trade. The silk from Nanxun won in the world expo in the 1800's. This town has been here since the 9th century. The old towns are built on the waterways, most have water canals that represent the streets, travel is mostly by boat. There are usually one or two rivers that go through the town then canals that intersect and circle the town. The buildings are built on both sides of the waterways and usually face the water. There are typical structures from the Ming and Qing Dynasties along with some European buildings. Most have been well preserved. There were several large mansions that included inner courtyards and gardens. It was definitely worth seeing.

Again, I apologize for the terrible pictures, hopefully next time we go to one of these I can get better pictures.

Hand carved chairs and table

lantern

This guy had no arms so he painted fans with his feet

It was amazing to watch him, he is doing calligraphy on this particular fan

Old painting

It is spring here in China

More old paintings on some sort of scrolls

Waterways, the people on the back stand and 'row' with a single long oar.

Selling stuff to tourists

These birds are used to fish with, they send them down to catch fish, then there is a wire round their beaks so they can actually swallow the fish. They are tied to the boat.

These are ancient 'books' they are actually wooden tablets and the characters are carved in to the front.

costume dresses, you can try these on and they will take your picture by the water, kinda like dressing up in the old western clothes and getting a black and white

These ladies are doing laundry. This is actually typical here, you can go by most the rivers in China and people are doing their laundry, not sure that anything is getting very clean here...