First batch from China, the wonderful waterways

O.k. so working through the photos from China has proved itself more than expected. I have however managed to get a limited amount online (about 500 or so ;-) and will be posting them in sets here (fingers crossed). If you're however impatient and have the stamina of a waterbuffalo (sounded right, have no idea as to their actual stamina) you can go here for the set where I recommend the slideshow option in theright hand corner.

But for now let me present the waterways which I so fell in Love with! We went to Shanghai, Nanjing and Souzhou, the latter two are are riddled with canals of all sorts which apart from presenting a plethora of reflections for me to ohh and ahh over (and nearly get run over as I try to capture on digicard) also serve as commute ways and even homes to some.



The ones with red and yellow buildings in them are generally taken in Nanjing by the Confusius temple where we took a small boatcruise. After all the pushyness and overpricing of street vendors in Shanghai it was a welcome relief to have to ask for the price of the cruise (my handlanguage which me and Ragnar developed when he was a smaller lad worked wonders!) and even better, when I mistook the price to be per head not ride the reaction was giddy laughter and cheerfulness again a nice relief after the non-responsiveness of most Shanghaians.
Probably a fair indication of a better life as we found the marked contrast that shocked us so between the haves and havenots in Shanghai to be much less noticable in Nanjing.
And Souzhou was an absolute pleasure in as much as people were far more open, welcoming, smiling and helpful than we had been met with before even if the living conditions were in some places crowded and tiny. And people doing there daily chores included slaughtering chicken on the sidewalk as well as washing clother in the not-so-clean canals.