烏鎮 Old town Wu-Zhen

    

Last weekend we visited another old town--Wu Zhen. 

Wu Zhen comprises 4 areas, but only two areas are open for visitors: the East and West.  We visited the West part of Wu Zhen. 

The west area is bigger and well organized while the east part is more localized but smaller. The travel bureau took over everything in the west( this sounds cruel to me to evacuate the residents), while the residents in the east still stay and run business in the area. Because of the differences between these two areas, we did not see residents' hanging their underwear or bedsheets on the street or lakeside in the west area. The compromise was that we could not find a bargain store to shop around.

  

烏鎮地处浙北水陸交通要道，因水成市，傍河成埠，自古商賈雲集。出生的名人大家多不及數。一千多年前中最早的梁昭明太子，宋、明、清期間，一共出了近二百名舉人、進士。近、現代也出了许多书法、绘画、和政治名家。

该地雨量丰沛，物产丰饶，是个富裕的古镇；它的建筑经历代翻修之后，大气而不失古味；水道、小橋相互交織，布局完善，令人嘆為觀止。我们走在街上，没几步路就会遇到小桥，忽高忽低好像在爬山，一路上很有變化。很多走道都有廊棚，而且水道很多，不会太熱，我們走了近五小時。

乌镇目前开放参观的地方有东栅和西栅二处，东栅还有当地居民居住，所以也有民宿；西栅则完全是旅游局進駐，看不到任何居民(只有店員)，所有旅馆住宿都要經由旅游局，街道虽然是整理的很干净近，看不到有人沿街晒内衣裤的窘樣；相对的，街旁就看不到低价的玩意店，是个名副其实的观光镇。一个富裕的古镇，照说应该和同里古镇一样，有着几处大户人家的庭院可观赏，But这里没有，Why? 我猜啦，古镇里得四星饭店、五星饭店很多，门面都是古迹，它们大量霸占了当时的庭院，不知将多少庭园化做客房，唉！古迹避得了战争、文革、还得逃得过“利”字那把刀，才有机会留传后世啊！

我想，这么美的古镇，当初被赶出此镇的老居民，心里一定很不舍，太残忍了，这种事也只有..........。不要想太多了，花了120RMB/每人,就好好享受此行吧！。

 

Dyed Calicos

Paste & Pickle workshop

The foundry workshop

 

River Bank Cafe

 Old Choppy Wall

 

The library's stairway

 

The big and round straw-woven plate

River bank food court, White Lotus Tower in the back  白莲塔

Night View

After we took some shots of the night view, we left this poetic and splendid old town.