It was four years since I was last in Shaoxing, and with the limited time I had, I managed to visit some of the places that I visited in my previous visits. I didn't have a lot of time, but confidently caught the No 2 bus from near the university, and alighted at various spots along Jiefung Lu.
Visiting Luxun's Native Place was on my "bucket list" of things to do, and in my last couple of days I found the time to do so. No 2 bus took me to the stop almost opposite Wal-Mart, and I wandered along the road taking photos of the canal that ran parallel to the roadway and later did a right had turn into the lane that lead to Luxun's Native Place.
The water in the canals doesn't look clean, but still people do their washing in it. I saw a lady washing almost opposite Wal-Mart - and on another walk saw many men and women doing their washing in a larger waterway.
I don't know how old the canals are - some do look quite old, and I love the rock work in some of the canals, like the one above which has yellow flowers and green leaves.
Luxun was a poet, novelist, translater and more - and is one of the celebrated citizens of Shaoxing with a whole street to celebrate his life. It is one of the most popular tourist places and all day every day visitors arrive to explore. At weekends the crowds are huge. Along both sides of the street are stalls with a range of items (food, silk items, souvenirs, calligraphy, art, and losts more) for visitor to purchase. There have been some changes since I was there - different shops and stalls and a restaurant that I had dined at several times has been demolished, though there are plenty of places to eat.
As well, you can see the famous Shaoxing boats (see below) - they are called Wupeng or black awning boats. Th awnings were once made of bamboo, though I see that some of them look like they have plastic looking covers. The boats are unique to this area - as the boatman powers the boat with his foot on a large oar at the back.
The boats ply many of the tourist spots including Luxun Native Place, East Lake, and the canal in the centre of the city.
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| Popular spot for photos |
I walked through taking photos, looking at the shops and stalls and remembering my previous visits. One spot in the complex that I had visited previously was the family garden - we were told that the same vegetables are grown there - just as they were in the time Luxun's family lived there.
The video below (courtesy of YouTube) will show more of the many bridges, and how the Wupeng boats are built.
I did buy some of the special sweets that are on sale in the complex and a rather intersting musical instrument that I heard being played in one of the shops, which I will write about in another post.
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