Tong Li

Yesterday David and I went with three other teachers from our school to visit a wonderful small water town called Tong Li. This town along with about 5 other water towns are only about an hours drive outside of Shanghai. I'm glad that there are places like this that are so close. They make a nice little day trip.

The photos that I have posted below are not the ones that I would have chosen for you all to see. Unfortunately, last night my memory card accidentally got deleted. Oh well, at least it gives me another excuse to go back and visit!

The images I would have liked you to see were photos of Tong Li's beautiful gardens and their fish filled ponds, soft and flowing weeping willows, and the small winding shop lined streets. And of course the photos of the sex museum. Yes, you read right. I think it's China's only one of it's kind. It used to be in Shanghai, but then it was deemed to be too racy for it to be in the city so they moved it outside. If you've been to the one in Paris, it's tame by comparison. Even though the museum was filled with ancient Chinese images of intimacy, the things that I found to be the most disturbing, were the images of bound feet. I had always imagined how small they would be, but I never had a clear idea of their actual size. They had a few examples of the shoes that they wore. They must have been no longer than 5 inches and that's probably generous.

On a more positive note. I saw the most amazing site. In the middle of the canal there was an elderly woman on a boat. She was cormorant fishing. She tapped the water several times with a long pole in order to get fish to come to the surface. She then threw one of her comorant birds into the water to nab the fish. After they had caught the fish, she would pull them back onto the boat and then reach down their throats and retrieve the catch. It was amazing. I'm hoping David will post an image of this or better yet, the video!