Yangzhou 扬州

           Shanghai is surrounded by many pretty formerly canal towns that mined the region that became Shanghai for its raw materials and became rich with it's trade. The most important of these towns all end in "zhou" (州) so this is the first part of my tour of two local 州 cities.

The first one I visited because I had the fortune of being invited by labmate Lu, who calls Yangzhou home, after completing her master at the university there. It was once a very rich city, and it is reported that even Marco Polo was an important governor here at one point during his travels. I got there by taking a bullet train to Zheijiang where Lu and her husband Hang picked me up, and they were my brilliant guides for the weekend. This meant that my weekend was very well organised by them and I got to see lots of pretty sights. Many of the photos here were taken by Hang on his Canon dSLR, since are much better quality and give a better impression of this quaint little city.
        These first photos are taken from the major tourist point, the Slender West Lake (瘦西湖):

My hosts for the weekend, Lu and Hang

They were having a chrysanthemum festival, so the whole place was covered in pots of chrysanthemums in all sizes, shapes and colours

I'm the same height as Lu when I sit down!

A hedge turned into a dragon!

Dongguan Street was our next stop for a light lunch which turned into a heavy one, on account of Hang being very keen for me to try as many of the wide variety of food stall available there. I only just managed to escape having to try freshly fried squid on a stick, which him and Lu munched away happily, while I tucked into extra chou doufu (臭豆腐). I know for some of you, squid may also have been delicious, it's just that seafood is a pet hate of mine. It was fried fresh in front of us though, so that's the best and safest way to have seafood, so if you like eating such creatures, this type of snack may be right up your street.

Then we headed over to Dongguan Street for lunch

Squid on a stick. Yum

One of the many funny statues at Dongguan Street

Many unusual shaped doorways in traditional Chinese architecture

I never get tired of Chinese doorways

After a spot of souvenir shopping, we went on to the He gardens, which mainly had beautiful old buildings from a Qing dynasty salt merchant. Apparently he lost his house during the cultural revolution and the triumph of communism, and basically got handed over to the government and is run by what I guess must be China's equivalent of the National Trust.

Lake at He Gardens

My hosts also took me to a very nice restaurant serving traditional Yangzhou food, and I have to say, it was one of the most delicious and pleasant experiences I've had in a traditional Chinese restaurant (one with the turntable in the middle). We ordered Yangzhou fried rice (扬州炒饭), which has a reputation for being just boring fried rice, but it was actually bursting with flavour from all the different vegetables and spices and ingredients and so I really quite liked it. We also had the ostentatious "lion's head" dish which is kind of like a large pimped up meatball with interesting filling inside. It is called the lion's head because the shaggy appearance of the meat is supposed to resemble a lion's hair (although I personally think that's stretching it a bit). We also had some delicious shredded tofu soup and some steamed fish, amongst other dishes. My friends had previously proudly boasted about the quality of Yangzhou food, and after my experience, I was tempted to agree that it lived up to its name.

Overall, I'd say Yangzhou is a great day out, but then, I partly had such a good time because I had experienced hosts who knew the place so well and were very organised in taking me round all the best places. Great to go to if Hangzhou is too mainstream for you (I hope to cover Hangzhou in an upcoming post soon!).