Quick Looka at One of Zhou Zhuang Signature Bridges
Although I was a bit reluctant to spend money for the boat ride, I found myself enjoying it more and more. It really is different if you travel with friends. Our boatman was a woman and she was quite engaging. She was pointing to us several places which are significant including some buildings which are hundreds of years old. She also pointed out how some old looking buildings is actually just reconstructed. She was saying stuff about how many bridges there are in Zhou Zhuang but I forgot. The rest of the time was spent on interviewing us.
Willow Trees Decorate the Banks of the Waterway in Zhou Zhuang 周庄
At one point, my friend requested that she sing a song for us. Upon our entry to Zhou Zhuang, she saw the boatmen singing songs to their passengers, much like what a gondolier does. Our boatman dedicated the song to us, “two beautiful ladies and a boss”. “Boss”? I was rather perplexed at her description as it was so different from her description of my friends. Couldn’t she at least pretend for the sake of the tip? At least, I know honesty is one of her virtues. Anyway, she sang us her song, which we didn’t understand a single word. I guess it was some kind of dialect, she didn’t tell us what it meant either, so it could have been just a folk song.
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