Xitang

We took a bus from Shanghai to the water city of Xitang which took about 2 hours. Xitang is over 1,000 years old and is like stepping into a postcard of older times. Red lanterns line the crumbling walkways and ceilinged corriders, while old wooden boats gently bob in the river. Small rustic bridges criss-cross the nine rivers making it easy to wander around the city.

Xitang is famous for Tom Cruise filming a scene here for Mission Impossible 3 (his photos are all over the city). We wandered the water town for most of the day, stopping in shops and watching the old men in boats paddle by with their bamboo poles. Many of the shops and houses in Xitang are built on the riversides. The lanes are paved with stone planks, polished by the feet of pedestrians as well as hundreds of years of weathering. Together with the black-tiled houses along the road they create the perfect postcard for a simpler time in China.

At night we went out to dinner with our tour group and they surprised him with a birthday cake. The candle on top was very flammable so we accidentally burned a small hole in the table. The candle also played a song as it burned! We went out to a local club in which we could write notes on the wall. We left a solid quote from Team America circa David's 2008 trip to Scandinavia.

Now we're off to Yangshuo, a beautiful scenic town with rock mountains dispersed throughout the city.

Zai-jian!

David and Kristen