Zhou Zhuang is an ancient town located in the southeast of Suzhou city. According to history, Zhou Di gave up his residence to build a Buddhist temple and donated 13 hectares of his private land in 1086 during the Song Dynasty. Due to his generosity, the people named the village Zhou Zhuang after Zhou Di's name.
For the past 900 years, Zhou Zhuang has grown into a flourishing river town by farming the areas south of the Yangtze River. All the buildings are retained in its original form and 60% of its residents still live in these ancient houses alongside construction from the Ming & Qing Dynasties.
At the entrance to the water village
The water canals that lined the village
An interlocking bridge
Colourful handmade straw bags
Boat lady who sang while rowing, for a fee, of course!
Lunch at one of the restaurants that lined the entrance to the village. The river prawns was cooked not to our request and they also refused to change it. Lai May wanted it to be freshly boiled while the dish that came was cooked in some kind of sauce which sort of marred the freshness of the prawns. Nothing great as the prawns were the scrawny kind. The puffer fish is the locally bred China variety, not the poisonous Japanese kind. Cooked in again some dark sticky sauce, the flesh was sweet & flaky but the size was too small. Of course, the signature dish is these parts, the braised pork knuckles was also sampled. Not impressive at all.
For the past 900 years, Zhou Zhuang has grown into a flourishing river town by farming the areas south of the Yangtze River. All the buildings are retained in its original form and 60% of its residents still live in these ancient houses alongside construction from the Ming & Qing Dynasties.
At the entrance to the water village
The water canals that lined the village
An interlocking bridge
Colourful handmade straw bags
Boat lady who sang while rowing, for a fee, of course!
Lunch at one of the restaurants that lined the entrance to the village. The river prawns was cooked not to our request and they also refused to change it. Lai May wanted it to be freshly boiled while the dish that came was cooked in some kind of sauce which sort of marred the freshness of the prawns. Nothing great as the prawns were the scrawny kind. The puffer fish is the locally bred China variety, not the poisonous Japanese kind. Cooked in again some dark sticky sauce, the flesh was sweet & flaky but the size was too small. Of course, the signature dish is these parts, the braised pork knuckles was also sampled. Not impressive at all.
1 comment:
I think the puffer is still poisonous but if cooked, the poison may be neutralised. Once a puffer, always a puffer ....
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