The Canal Cities: Zhujiajao

By Rem / in shanghai / September 23, 2010

I had the good fortune on the evening of September 3rd to meet with a fellow 'landscraper' from RISD and from the Class of 2010. Sun Li, or, Li Sun as he was known at RISD, is here in Shanghai working for a new (since April) landscape architecture, planning and urban design firm called Integrated Planning and Design (IPD). The following day originally had me going to Suzhou with Ahmed from work, but things didn't work out and I took the opportunity to catch up with Li some more by going to another water town called Zhujiajao.

Modern emulation of the old. Note the sign for "Letting Them Bridge" which is supposed to mean "Letting the (fish) go" (catch/release)

The old town of Zhujiajao has the right amount of scale, being neither too large nor too small.

Map of Zhujiajao

The town definitely has considerably more charm than most areas of Shanghai.

The canal in Zhujiajao

Detail of window treatment

"Bum Cafe" and two-storied built typology. Note windows again.

Sun Li was trying to find a restaurant with good reviews but his 3G was so spotty(using Google Maps) that we just wandered around until we found it. Here I got to try out berry wine, which was similar in taste to mead and as I found out three weeks later, to that of Japanese plum wine.

Old fashioned wine jugs

A street with wooden structures

Compare to this

Lantern decoration

Aside from walking around the narrow streets, we also entered two Buddhist Temples. They had some interesting entities, such as a working well with very cold water, red ribbons and locks (prosperity and lasting relationships for the locks I think) and some interesting motifs on the temple complex roofs.