Wuzhen

At the beginning of November, Alex’s school had parent – teacher conferences.  Which meant that as soon as we were done with meeting his teachers, he had the day off.  And we decided that we should visit the scenic and famous town of Wuzhen which is not far from Alex’s school.

For anyone unfamiliar with our school transportation drama,  Alex is driven to school by one of three guys – any day it might one of them. So this kid rolls up to school with a private driver, not because we’re so special but because I don’t have a Chinese driver’s license yet and can’t get a car until I get one.  This day though, we all drove in with Alex and his driver, with the plan that we would meet back at school for regular pickup in the afternoon.

We went in, met the teachers, heard mostly good stories about our kid. Almost universally got the comment that he is a chatterbox. Mark got to see the school for the first time since it’s completion and we both got a chance to see Alex’s classroom for the first time.  (I didn’t take any pictures, I was too busy being a responsible parent… next time though.)

After that we hopped in a cab and drove to Wuzhen. Mark had been telling me about Wuzhen since he applied for the job here. It’s beautiful, it’s very old, it’s got canals – what more could you ask for?  It’s perhaps most beautiful at night, but admittedly given our limited schedule with the driver we were only there during the day.

One of the first things we did when we got to Wuzhen was walking through a fabric dyeing museum. I had never seen anything like it, it was so beautiful.  There was a lady giving a demonstration on how they put the patterns on to the fabric before dyeing.

 

Of course, after walking through one museum, Alex was starving. So we made him order his own food. The reality is that he knows more Chinese than Mark or I do, and he handled it beautifully.  He said it was the best corn, and afterwards told the lady it was delicious in Chinese.

 

There was so much to see and do, and so many food options. There were stores and shops all along the way.  While we were walking we came across another museum and stopped to have a look.  It was a wedding museum, and while we didn’t partake, you could dress up in traditional wedding clothes and get your picture taken. Maybe next time! I think I enjoyed this one more than Mark and Alex, but it was fascinating to see the traditional style and how weddings use to be here.

While we were walking through the museum, there was a beautiful courtyard in the back section of the former house.  It was so quiet and beautiful back there, I wanted to stay forever.  Alex was not so patient however.

I really felt like I could stay right there where Alex is sitting, with a book and a big cup of coffee and never want to leave.  It was peaceful and beautiful, I can’t wait to go back again.

After we were done in the museum we went back to just wandering up and down bridges and walkways. Mark, and most of our Chinese friends, think Wuzhen is a  Disney-ified version and that are more authentic old towns to visit.  I loved Wuzhen and will be happy to visit any other old towns too!

By this time, the corn had worn off and Alex was starving again. So we went in search of food. There are many, many options for food along this way, but we wanted to find the right place. We ended up finding a  place that looked good, and when we went inside was actually a fancy hotel restaurant.   We sat down and looked at the menu and realized that we had made an error.  Mark usually handles the translation apps on his phone, he’s much better at that than I am, and seems to have better apps.  However, his phone was dead. There was only one picture per page in the menu, and we really couldn’t tell what to get.

As the restaurant found an employee who spoke some English,  the lady sitting at the table behind us offered to help. She told us not to get what we had been looking at because they had eaten it the day before and it wasn’t very good. She helped us order a fish, rice, veggies, and xiao long bao (dumplings with soup in them).  And then we chatted for a bit about why we were there and how Alex liked school.  If not for the kindness of strangers, we would have been stuck again.

Fed and happy again, we were able to keep walking.  I’m sad I didn’t get more pictures inside the restaurant, there were some beautiful blue windows.

We crossed back over a bridge to start heading back (in order to make it back to Alex’s school on time) and on the other side of the bridge there was a water pump.  I don’t know what is so exciting to Alex about water pumps… but if there is one, he’s got to pump it.  He was so happy to pump water, and so a few older ladies came by to wash their hands in the water he pumped and tell him good job.  And then a few more people came to see him pumping water, and then a few more. There were waves of people who were walking by, happened to see him and then had to stop and wash their hands too.  At one point, I was trying to get him to move along but as he was about to stop, some college aged girls came up to get water from him. “Can’t stop now Mom, I’ve got more customers!”

If you look on the left side of the picture, you’ll see someone with their phone out taking a picture of all this.  We’re getting more used to it, but this time was the funniest for me. Alex had around 20 people at a time watching him pump water, ask him questions, thank him in Chinese and be so happy when he said you’re welcome back to them in Chinese.  Mark pointed out that I should get a picture of the people taking pictures of Alex.

And Alex just loved it, he thought this was the best part of the day!  People asked us where we came from, and told me that Alex looked just like Mark and nothing like me. A good time was had by all.

A little bit farther down the road, there was a replica water pump… we had to stop again.

After this, it was really time to get moving so we could make it back to the school. There had been a mix up and the driver had come early back to the school, and then left again and I was so worried we would miss him or make him late again waiting for us.

As we were trying to figure out how to get back to the starting point, we found a little wooden bridge with lots of people on it. We had to stop and see what they were all looking at.  In the water, there were giant Koi- bigger than I’ve ever seen. Each one was at least a foot long, and there were so many.  People were throwing bread in to them, and they were fighting to get the food.

 

We made it back to the entrance, hopped in a cab, made it back to the school (after making him wait another 10ish minutes) and back to the university.  Despite the hiccups, this may have been one of my favorite things we’ve done in China yet. I’d go back tomorrow if I could.   This makes me very excited for Shi-town which is a more authentic old town.