"The Venice of China"

Nine of us had the opportunity on Saturday to take an $8 round-trip two-hour bus ride to the water village of Xitang (You may recognize it from Mission Impossible 3!).  There are several water villages in the area that compete for the title, “The Venice of China,” and we had heard that this one was the best preserved and least touristy of the set. Apparently it was once upon a time an important fishing village that was built at the intersection of nine different small rivers. I believe the town has been in existence for over a thousand years.

This place absolutely was a miniature, less wealthy, Chinese version of Venice; right when you walk through the gate of Xitang, the first thing you see is a bridge stretching over the water in a similar angle and structure (though scaled down) as the famous one depicted so often in it’s Italian sister, except this bridge appeared to have been layered with distinctly Chinese styling.  As we kept walking we finally made it to the central area, which was jam-packed with tourists—if this was the least touristy, I can’t imagine the other water villages. It was also jam-packed with tourist shops and restaurants; on one side of the walkway was the serene, albeit murky, water, on the other was annoying vendors selling every kind of trinket and cheap gadget you can think of.

Probably the coolest thing we got to do was take a twenty-minute gondola ride from one side of the town to the other. Gliding along the water with the Chinese dude in the back rowing, passing other boats (and even crashing into one), and going through all the bridges—all for a buck-fifty—was pretty amazing. Also our loud American antics, including singing Disney songs, drew quite a bit of attention from the other tourists; I don’t think the puzzled, amused looks we seem to get wherever we go will ever get old.

Overall it was a great day, and I am very happy we dragged ourselves out of bed at 6:15 to experience yet another crazy treasure of this huge country. We’re on to the famous Yellow Mountain next week for the national holiday during the first week of October. Supposedly the Hallelujah Mountains in Avatar were inspired by the scenery in this area, and just from the epic-looking pictures I've seen the connection is not difficult to see.