In April we held a large event for our vendor community. Because we called on resources all across China we decided to do a team building event the following day and take advantage of our colleagues from different places all being together. The location of the offsite was Wuzhen – a water village about two hours outside of Shanghai.
I had been to another water village Zhujiajiao four years before, but that visit had occurred in January so I had never really gotten the full sense of the magic of the water villages before.
For the purist, Wuzhen is not a living water village anymore. Most of the original houses have been turned into restaurants or guest houses and there are boutique shops that line the streets of the town. There are myriads of shoe stores, sweet shops selling local delicacies and expensive water taxis that will take the well heeled tourist from one side to the other. After seeing it though, that doesn’t matter to me – the beauty and peacefulness that I found there made it one of the least crowded and enjoyable mornings I have spent in China thus far.
It started the night we arrived where above the reception area were lanterns representing a dragon and a phoenix. They illuminated the dark room and gave a sense of magic to the space.

The fire of the dragon

was complemented by the beauty of the phoenix
That continued into my hotel room where the paintings and four poster bed grounded the space into traditional Chinese history. From my window I could get a sense of one of the channels of the river running close by, but I couldn’t see into the darkness. The hotel had planks embedded into the floor in the hallways which gave me the impression that I was walking over a bridge to my room.

Traditional Chinese art on the walls of the room grounded by the wood floors and carved pillars.
The next morning before my meetings I went to wander the paths of the village. I didn’t have a lot of time, so I tried to see as much as I could.

First view of the canal and the typical transportation by boat

Peaceful water with reflection of the trees

Mist rising off the water – the canals are fairly wide

But the streets are very narrow – you can even touch both sides

Bridges would cross from one side to the other

With gardens on some of the dry land, beckoning me in

And scenes carved into the wall with bamboo behind reminding me of an earlier time
The mix of water and lanes and bridges with gardens just on the other side made me feel glad to be alive. There was mist rising over the rivers and yet I could see the reflections of the trees in the canals. It was a special place.
Wuzhen also happens to represent the elements which is the weekly travel theme at Where’s My Backpack – the Four Elements. There is the water of the canals, the wood of the houses, the fire of the lanterns, earth of the bricks that make up the streets and the mist which rises through the air over the entire scene. To see how others visualized the elements, please feel free to click on the link.
It also links up with the Weekly Photo Challenge this week which is Escape. For that morning I escaped the loudness, the pollution, the busyness of Shanghai and was able to see a more natural world. Wuzhen is a true escape from Shanghai.
Where do you escape to?

A final look
Tags: air, china, earth, escape, fire, photo challenge, water, water village, wood, Wuzhen