The town of Tongli turned out to be a great little find. It was indeed quaint and we had lots of fun exploring and taking a boat ride through the canals. Tourists entering the town have to pay a small fee. The entrance is in the south-west corner as shown on the map to the right.

From there we took a short ride on some 'golf carts' and walked to the first canal and bridge.

 

 

Just like Venice, from there we wandered through the various streets and alleys eyeing the food and other shops along the way. Again notice the street sweeper below.

Here we see Jill doing her Leonardo da Vinci pose. This was at an old residence with small garden that was transformed into a museum.

The boats were somewhere between the gondolas of Venice and the punts of Cambridge, England. Each held six of us while the operator stood at the stern manipulating the oar. The canals are very narrow and the old tires on the sides were used a fair amount.

That is when we encountered this fisher lady and her cormorants. Tom had made arrangements to have her there to show us how she would send the birds into the water to catch fish.

But before the show was to start, Tom and the woman had a friendly argument about the price she wanted for this demonstration. This was all in Chinese, of course, and there were several bystanders who pleaded for the woman and us tourists applauding for Tom. Finally they had settled on the price and the woman did her thing.

Using her bamboo pole, she would coach the birds to dive into the water. They were tied to the boat with long green strings and had a loop around their necks that would prevent them from swallowing large fish. Then after the birds came back to the boat, she would grab them and squeeze out the white fish as seen below.

We continued our tour around the canals feeling sorry for the birds.

Our final destination was Shanghai, the large coastal city with its tall skyscrapers and harbor. A brief stop along the water front, or Bund, led to a couple pictures, including another request by these young bunnies.

The hotel for the next three nights was probably the best and most luxurious on this three week tour. From the 23rd floor we had a view of the city with its ever lasting smog while sipping some of the local brew (yuck). But Sharon keeps telling me, "You are too negative sometimes."

The following morning took us to the modern Shanghai Museum where we spent some time admiring some of the nicest pottery and other treasures of China's past. Then in the afternoon it was some more shopping and our last dinner together with Tom and the group. The last full day in China was spent shopping on our own and a nice prime-rib dinner (with a loaded baked potato and veggies) at a restaurant called Lawry's.

It was time to call it 'enough' and go home. The three weeks had flown by; we had done and seen so much and made new friends both here and there. Tom and the other guides had been fe nominal and it had been fun interacting a bit with the people of China (whether or not we spoke the same language). To us the latter is always the best part of traveling around the world. So with boarding pass in hand . . . . .