Last Sunday we just had to get outside. We had been spending entirely too many rare spring days indoors. Unfortunately, the lovely garden of the lane house we just moved to wasn’t an option. Call me Construction Mary, but demolition follows me wherever I go. Right now, it’s the house next door. Flying glass shards from the smashing of the sunroom and sparks from welding have sent us scurrying back inside for a couple of weeks now.
looking down on our garden
and the mess next door -- those protective cloths only went up when the rain started, not when glass was flying!
We decided to make a day-trip to a nearby watertown, so called because these old towns are perched alongside the canals that criss-cross the lower Yangtze delta.
We (husband John, son Alex, and friend Barbara) chose the town of Xitang in nearby Zhejiang Province and headed out in our car with our driver, Ou Yang. After about an hour and a half, we pulled up next to the bus parking lot, no longer surprised that in China, towns we envision as charming and untouched turn out to be major managed tourist attractions. But thanks to the handy signs, 
we made our way easily to the ticket counter, where we woke up the attendant and paid 100 RMB (about $US 15) each to file through the turnstile and enter the town.
Xitang is lovely, so lovely in fact that it was featured in Mission Impossible 3. Tom Cruise is something of a local hero; in one restaurant we saw his signature on the wall — through a glass window, as the room itself is now locked away. But I digress.
We whiled away the hours strolling, shopping in the narrow streets, checking out the street vendors, and eating local specialties (although we stayed away from the seafood that comes from those dubious canals).
boatman on Xitang canal
Along with throngs of other tourists, we shopped and wandered down the narrow lanes until they gave way to more recent construction, larger roads.
Finally, we chartered a boat for the ride back to the parking lot, waving at smiling diners along the way.
Back home Monday morning, I queried Driver Ou Yang. Remember that gate you took us to yesterday? We had to pay 100 RMB per person. That’s really expensive. I saw a lot of people in Xitang enjoying themselves but I don’t think that they would pay 100 RMB. Was that the special price just for foreigners?
Oh nobody pays that to get in, Ou Yang answered. We Shanghainese don’t have to pay. And anybody who would have to pay doesn’t go in that gate. They just walk in from one of the back roads. Next time I’ll take you around.
So… does anybody remember the scene in which the army is galloping across the open prairie and pulls up short when they come across a tollbooth? Yeah, well I guess we showed up in Xitang with a shitload of dimes.
Next time, I suppose we’ll stroll on in from one the back entrances, too. But I’m afraid if we do, we still won’t get to see the Five Girl Theme Park.