Exploring on my own

During our break, some friends of ours from school invited us out to a day of golfing ... since I have zero eye-hand coordination, this wasn't exactly something that sounded fun to me, although I was excited about the opportunity to get out of the city and socialize with grown-ups a little bit. I was really excited when I found out that I could go explore a nearby water village of Zhouzhuang while Jason golfed :) Here are some pictures from my very fun day.

As I approached the entrance to the village, there were several groups of women performing what I could only assume were traditional dances.

Once inside (after paying my 100 RMB...about $15), I was delighted by all the sights!

There was even a large temple with grounds in the middle of the village.

These people were having SO much fun feeding the hords of fish!

Beyond the village ...

I took a break to purchase a "disneyland priced" iced mocha ... but with the fabulous view from the cafe, it was well worth the expense!

These women were making fishing nets ... by hand.

People here do their wash in the canal ... a little scary when you go to eat somewhere, but it's probably best not to think about it.

You can see a woman in the distance washing clothes in the canal.

Salad bar and dried fish/seafood bar, ready to go!

A friend of mine has asked me several times if I've seen the Cormorant fishing yet ... which is apparently a type of night fishing in which fishmen use these birds to catch fish out of the water and bring them back ... so I was pretty excited to see this boatful of them, thinking that perhaps this was a place where I could pay to see them fish ... when I got to the other side of the canal, I was a bit disappointed to see that they were only photo-op birds, not working birds :(

A last look before I try to make my escape through the many Chinese tourists crammed into this narrow alley leading to the exit.