Zhouzhuang Travel| Water Town like Venice
As the saying goes : Zhouzhuang
features the mellow waterside towns. Feminine beauty was built in its very blood and soul. No wonder it was chosen one of the sites for APEC meeting site.
The town complex lies in Kunshan, 38 km southeast of Suzhou city in Jiangsu Province
Oriental Venice
and surrounded by water. People plant willows on the edge of their narrow yards, to be more accurate, corridors. Little bridges, murmuring brooks and rural cottages, all of these come into a picture of quietness and simplicity. Bridges, with name or without name, all have their distinct views. Zhouzhuang is famous for its tea culture. Grandma's Tea, Spring Tea and Month Ceremony Tea (probably means to celebrate a new-birth baby successfully spent his/her first month in this world). There are too many customs about tea to list. |  |
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Washing and River | River and House | River and Spring | River and Boating |
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The traditional women would like to wear the characteristic costumes with softly dotted tiny flower, exquisite embroideries as decorations. Recent years cabbage patch dolls become a fashion on the international stage again. To Zhouzhuang, it was only a symbol of women in the past. When it comes to red letter days, notably during traditional festival of the Lunar New Year, there are folk operas, boat race, and lantern raisings. People from every corner flocked together to celebrate. If you are luck enough, you may catch the chance and experience what a hot scene it will be.
There are too many places of interest awaiting your discovery. Now name a few as following: Ancient bridges as Dragon Bridge
Fu An Qiao
(bridge of wealth and safety), Tai Ping Qiao (bridge of peace), The Twin Bridges, Bao En Qiao (bridge of gratitude), Qing Long Qiao ([Zhouzhuang Story in USA] About Zhouzhuang, a story happened in USA needs mentioning. In 1984, Chen Yifei, a Chinese student studying in the United States, created an oil painting themed with Twin Bridges(or Shuangqiao) of Zhouzhuang and named it Hometown in Memory. Afterwards, together with other 37 paintings, it was exhibited in Gallery of Hamer Armand who was the President of Occidental Petroleum Corporation of the United States in New York. It made a stir in audience. Because the masterpiece created in manners of western oil painting style and
Chinese traditional water-ink painting
techniques, and the entire painting highlights the dream-like and fabulous views of classical bridges and floating streams in traditional Suzhou as well as the countryside idyllic scenery in Jiangnan area of China. A commentary named Boldly Challenging Western Fashion was issued on Art News, an authoritative journal in America. It specially introduced the art achievement that Chen Yifei made. In November, 1984, before Hamer Armand visited China, he bought this painting at a high price in order to present Deng Xiaoping as a gift. We do not know why Hamer Armand chose Chinese people’s painting as gift to present Chinese top leader, but since then, many people in the world learnt more about Zhouzhuang.Annually, United Nations issues six batches of stamps, so every year, 6 excellent painters from all over the world would be selected to design and paint the images for stamps, and these completed stamps will be taken as the first-day cover. In 1985, this painting after the further refinement became the first-day cover. It makes a great contribution for more people to understand this typical water town in China.
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Chen Yifei and His Masterpiece of Painting named Hometown in Memory | The occasion when Hamer Armand presented Deng Xiaoping the Hometown in Memory, the painting of Chen Yifei |
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[Water Travel Opener] In early 1990s, Wang Xiaomei, an old woman, was the first person to open the water travel in
