Xitang Historic Water City

The weekend of May 10th we were taken, by the President of the ZETP, where we work, to Xitang (Pronounced Shitang) along with a dozen or so of his colleagues or staff. We have tried several times to discover the reason for the trip but to date still have no idea except it sounded a bit like it might be for team building - but only vaguely - and more likely that the 'foreign experts' were a good excuse for a trip away - that was my interpretation of it anyhow.

Xitang is a 'water town', reminiscent of Venice, dating from the Ming dynasty i.e. 600 years ago. The alleys were so narrow that we could only walk single file yet still the pedicabs insisted on traveling through them.
Along many of the alleyways and all along the river were small stalls with tourist trinkets, many hand crafted and quite beautiful especially the carving and the fans.



We arrived in the evening and saw it all by night first of all when we went to a lovely restaurant on the river for a sumptuous meal in the usual Chinese style of more than 16 different dishes. Among the dishes were many that we moved around our plates and discreetly dropped into the piles of scraps (like fish bones etc) which you spit onto the cloth beside your place setting. Among the discreetly discarded were frogs (tiny little flattened fried things), eels (cut very small with tasty sauce), winkles, crabs, pork and chicken. There were several different kinds of fish both big and small as this town is close to the sea and seafood common. Then there were many dishes that we have come to enjoy like lettuce root, seaweed, water chestnuts, peas, bok choy and the like. What makes real Chinese food so edible, whatever it is, are the magnificent sauces in which they serve the food. Often these sauces have a base of soy or balsamic vinegar, sometimes sweet and sometimes not, but always tasty. Each area, region, town, home even, seems to have their own special sauce.



Beer was the male drink of the night while I was given a Chinese rice wine, sweet but powerful and to be taken only in small quantities!! The president as you see is a big drinker.

One custom here is that they must chink glasses and shout 'Ganbei' each time you drink. No quietly sipping your own drink here without others joining in - so of course there is a constant chinking in order to actually drink when you want to.


The next day we had a tour of the city including a river boat ride. It certainly looked very old. The government acquired the buildings some years ago in order to make it a Heritage site but they allowed the people continue to live there so it remains a living, thriving town. The houses seem much as they were originally but are now being maintained and preserved.




People live on and by the river, they transport all their goods by river and do their washing in the river.
Of course it is now full of vendors and eating places....but very interesting See its web site at www.Xitang.com.cn.


It was magical and quaint and although the outside of the houses look very old if you look up you can see solar panels on all the roofs.







The school was very generous and bought me a lovely hand painted fan,and us both some rice delicacies and little teapots. Mine was made of the special local purple sand.




We then started back to Hangzhou stopping off at the 'seaside' for yet another sumptuous meal of more than 20 dishes most of which were fish or seafood so no good at all for Yvonne. I will not however regale you with more gastronomic tales but say that we had a very interesting and enjoyable weekend........and a checkmark for yet another completed visit to a site on our list of 'must dos'.