Water villages around the Suzhou district are a dime a dozen especially since Suzhou and the six ancient water villages around it is known as ” The Venice of the East”. The most popular one is actually Zhou Zhuang but I find it a little too commercialized and decided to visit Tong Li this time instead.
Tongli is a 1000 year on town on the eastern shore of Taihu Lake. It has forty-nine stone bridges joining seven islands created by fifteen rivers and five lakes so every where you turn, you see water! A lot of my time there were spent wandering the streets and bridges of the canals.
My little joint to Tongli wasn’t planned. It was actually extremely random… I just went to the bus station and decided there and then to go. But I guess thats how I like to travel. Unless I’m travelling with really picky people or friends and family with special needs and agendas, I like to go wherever the wind takes me.
Other quirky things about Tongli is that it’s supposed to be famous for having the China Sex Museum but it has since been moved to Shanghai in 2004. I also read that some scenes from Mission Impossible 3 were shot here. Tongli is in the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
In the next few posts, I will slowly show you the different aspects of the town that appealed to me.
Love your laissez-faire modus operandi for travelling. Takes away the stress of rushing through schedules (as if we don’t have enough work deadlines!) and makes the experience so much sweeter!
Ivy,
There’s usually so much to do and see whenever I’m in a foreign place. Friends and acquaintance usually take me to one or two of the main attractions while the rest of the time I end up wandering around in my free time to see what I encounter next. It’s fun because you have no expectation, there’s no pressure in the journey. I do sometimes end up missing the big attractions altogether though but there’s always a next time I suppose 🙂
Who took the pics with you in it Renz? They were very well taken.
Cornelius, friends or family that were with me.
Oh… I didn’t see anybody else in all your pics so I was wondering… 🙂
Cornelius,
Not everyone is ready to be put out on a blog in public all the time so sometimes I leave them out unless they are comfortable with it.