We left for Xitang at 09:00, this time on a different bus than the one for our shuttle. We rolled out of Suzhou through some highway construction. We were going to a different province. At the borders of Jiangsu Province, all vehicles are required to stop and talk to an official of some kind. This station looks like a toll plaza. About 500 meters afterward we had to do the same thing to enter Zhejiang Province.
We arrived in Xitang around 10:30, debussed, and headed for the main entrance.
We arrived in Xitang around 10:30, debussed, and headed for the main entrance.
We first went through a scenic area of a few shops and made our way to the corner of the are a bounded by old walls. We turned and headed towards what was obviously newer Xitang. We came upon the intersection of our road with another, and were just deciding which way to turn when one of the Chinese facilitators called us over to some sort of gate, which turned out to be the entrance to the historic district. Suffice to say that, unless you knew Chinese characters, and were extremely observant, this ticket booth was rather well disguised as another gate leading to another alleyway next to another run-down shop with a bunch of old guys sitting outside of it.
Once inside, we started as a whole group, but the cramped, crowded environment and the variance in how fast people were willing to move soon caused the group to fracture in to several smaller groups.
Once inside, we started as a whole group, but the cramped, crowded environment and the variance in how fast people were willing to move soon caused the group to fracture in to several smaller groups.
My group ended up as a pair. We wandered through all of the streets and into several of the shops. The entire area is comparatively small, but probably twice the size of the mile-long Pingjiang Road. The whole area consists of a series of narrow streets lined with shops all centered around a large, central waterway. There are several bridges over this.
We bought some lunch from a small shop, and wandered into several others. At one point, I decided to see just how rusty my archery skills were. They were pretty rusty, but in my defense, the bow was missing some of the hardware around the grip, and the arrows had no feathers. We went into a few of the museum-type attractions, including the Drunk Garden, The West Garden, and the Button Museum.
We bought some lunch from a small shop, and wandered into several others. At one point, I decided to see just how rusty my archery skills were. They were pretty rusty, but in my defense, the bow was missing some of the hardware around the grip, and the arrows had no feathers. We went into a few of the museum-type attractions, including the Drunk Garden, The West Garden, and the Button Museum.
We all met back at the bus around 14:45 and were embarked on the bus by 15:00. We came back to the apartments and several of us hung out and ordered Papa John’s, which to our happiness tastes exactly the same as it does in the US.