Day Trip: Tongli Adventures

China has water villages around Shanghai, so bright and early this morning we drove off to Tongli, a scenic but touristy town about 2 hours away. If you've ever been to Venice, Tongli was the slightly more run down, asian version.

"If you were dripping sweat, then I was raining!" -Erica
It was great to get out of Shanghai but it was seriously hot there. Anna got about 20 more mosquito bites in the span of 4 minutes and we were all sticky, nasty, and wet.

We took a chinese boat ride on the rivers and got to see some coramacks dive for fish. Coramacks are a type of bird that Chinese fisherman use to catch fish for them- they tie the bird's neck with string so the bird can't swallow and then train it to catch fish. Any fish the bird catches are regurgitated for the fisherman. It was awesome to see in action. The birds are tiny but they can cram in 3 or 4 fish per dive.

Tongli is famous for its water canals as well as its gardens and sex museum. They have crossbow shooting and cannonball firing too. The one thing I really wanted to do but couldn't was go in a hamster ball. I don't know the exact name of it but its a giant clear plastic ball that you can go inside and then walk, or roll on the water. The gardens were very pretty and the day trip was fun. At night we had dinner and watched a cultural/folk dance show.



Tongli's main street

view on the bridge from the left

view on the bridge from the right

Tongli's main gate

view of the courtyard from the second floor restaurant


man playing erhu



boats







pavilion ceiling in one of the gardens




outdoor pavilion

peaceful fish in a lake at one of the gardens



after pouring fish food into the water, a feeding frenzy occured!