Qi Bao

Qi Bao is located 18km from downtown Shanghai. Qi Bao in Chinese means seven treasures and the town was so named for a legend go that there were seven treasures around the area, which were a Gold Lotus Scripture written by an imperial concubine of the 10th century, a Magic Tree, dating back to one thousand years ago, a Big Bell Floated from Afar, a Buddha Flown over from Afar, a Gold Cock, Jade Chopstick and a Jade Axe. But according to history, only four of them-the Gold Lotus Scripture, the Big Bell, Magic Tree, Golden Cock) actually once existed while two of the four(the Scripture and the Bell) have survived till today. Qi Bao is also famous for its old streets and the two brooks that meet in this town to give it the feel of a little Venice.

I went to Qi Bao with Mr. Liang, the school driver, Irene and her daughter Le Rong (pronounced: Le Wrong - meaning happiness) Irene and her daughter are photographed with me on the boat above, Irene is in the turquoise jacket and her daughter is in between us. We left today at 10am to drive to the little town. It took us 45 minutes to get there and that was with heavy traffic. Irene's daughter got car sick on the way there, and who could blame her? Everyone here drives a stick shift and they are terrible at it! The ride is so bouncy and choppy because of the poor shifting skills! I'm not just saying Mr. Liang is bad, all the taxi's and buses I've been in are like this! They speed up and then slam on the brakes when the traffic gets heavy. Weird.

I was shocked at how many people were out in this small town today. It was crowded! The old streets were filled with shops of silk clothes, candy, food, Chinese slippers, any kind of trinket you could think of. The traditional architecture was great, especially along the backdrop of the river. We went into several different historic points along the old streets. We saw the clock tower (me ringing bell above), the Cricket House, the Cotton & Textile Mill, a miniature carving house, a pawn shop, a Shadowgraph museum, and a memorial hall to artist Zhang Chongren. Qi Bao was known for its cotton and textile industry. They supposedly invented their own type of cotton clothing that became well known in the area. Some of the sites were original to when the hay day of Qi Bao was. Like the pawn shop, this was the actual site of the pawn shop. The cricket house was interesting, as they showed you where and how they bred crickets, as well as where and how they fought. Funny, I didn't hear one cricket chirping in the garden.

We then had a traditional Qi Baoian lunch. Yikes, we ordered so much food! We had pork, chicken, beef, sheep (not a fan), soup, salad, tofu (which smelled horrible, but tasted wonderful) and of course, rice. It was very good and of course, we ordered way too much. I think they wanted me to try a bunch of different dishes, so they over ordered!

After lunch we wandered the rest of the old town and then went on a canal cruise. It is very much like the gondolas of Venice. One person was 'rowing' in the back of the boat as we glided along the water. Then we turned around (not sure how the driver did this with just one oar) and made our way back down the river. We weaved our way back through the small town back to the car and made our way home. It took an hour to get home, as the traffic was much worse!

Qi Bao is a very quaint small town, however, it has me looking forward to traveling to the other water villages such as ZhouZhang and to HuangZhou where they make Chinese tea!