Jiading

After a little shoe shopping fiasco for Rachel we head to Jiading on the metro. Last stop on route 11 we were really heading out of the city and into the suburbs proper. When we arrived no one spoke English and with the help of Google translate (already an essential after 4 days) found ourselves on a local bus for 2 yuan as opposed to a taxi for 50!

We got off and walked towards the old town and after taking a turn off found ourselves in medieval China with a twist. There was a small district of buildings, alleyways, canals and bridges that were exactly how I would imagine China to have looked a few centuries ago minus the fried squid sticks, tourists gifts, bubbly drinks, clothes (and whatever else Chinese people think that tourists will buy) being sold at the front of the buildings. The hustle and bustle definitely made it feel as though we could have been at a medieval market though nothing took away from the beauty of the place. It was our first peek at how china used to be since we'd only spent time in Shanghai so far.

We walked around and despite it not being quiet for china it wasn't too busy either, we were however the only non-chinese people there and were drawing a lot of stares (something we have come accustomed too over the past year and half). The town itself was really pretty, with lots of arch bridges crossing canals, gardens to walk through, an impressive pagoda in the town itself, a museum dedicated to a politician who had called jiading his home and one of the only Confucian temples left in Asia (more on this later). Despite the fact that I knew this place was all renovated or restored or even completely fabricated to look like an old town it didn't matter, it was a brilliant place to spend the day wandering and to get a feel of what China used to be like.Read more