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Huxinting Tea House, one of the most famous tea houses in this part of China. Note the zigzagging bridge over the water--apparently evil spirits can only go in straight lines so the tea house is protected. From one side, at least. Unless the spirits can jump. Then all bets are off.

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Giselle outside the tea house. On the right side, in front of the tea house, is the restaurant where we ate lunch. Apparently the Clintons ate there while Bill was President.

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crab decorations leftover from a festival

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Inside the tea house, warming up and enjoying the respite from the bustling crowds outside

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making dumplings.

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The busy shopping district around Yu'Yuan Gardens.

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We had this woman carve several "chops," or name stamps, to give as gifts. Apparently in China, documents aren't official unless someone stamps them with their chop.

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male guardian protecting the entrance to Yu'Yuan Gardens.

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Judy pointed out the passageways through the gardens traditionally reserved for men (which overlooks the gardens) and the passageway for women which was behind a wall with only occasional peepholes. Judy and Giselle took the beautiful passageway and made Bill take the darker passageway. He was able to snap this photo through one of the peepholes.

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roof detail

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roof detail

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Beautiful dragon

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Small pagoda with intricate roof surrounded by jade.

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Yu'Yuan Gardens has some of the most intricate roof guardians we've ever seen.

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A beautiful curving bridge over the water, past jade, and under a tree. Up close you can see where footsteps have polished the jade over time.

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Westerners were swarming everywhere! (Well, there were only three of them, and they were us, but everywhere we went, there we were!)

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After we left Yu'Yuan Gardens we passed this crew paving a road by hand. It looked like hard, sweaty work.

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Remarkably, the bus managed to get through the crowd without squashing anyone.

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A busy street market.

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Judy took us to the absolutely fascinating cricket and bird market. We never would have found it on our own because it's through an unassuming door on a busy street.

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It was dark in the market and difficult to photograph anything, but there was an amazing variety of crickets, birds, fish, and associated feed and supplies. (grubs, mealworms, etc).

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Next we went to an area filled with "antique" shops. There are some genuine antiques mixed in, but most of the items are probably of recent origin and made to look old. Every shop had numerous "Omega" clocks, all purportedly manufactured in the 1880s. Amazingly, the faces of all these ancient clocks were printed by an inkjet printer.

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Strolling through the antique market.

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Judy explained that this is the symbol put on buildings scheduled for demolition. Huge swaths of the city are being torn down and modernized. Whole neighborhoods are relocated to new highrise buildings far out from the city center. They get new apartments with water and electricity (which they may have lacked before) but it's hard to imagine people being able to keep the same jobs when they move several hours away!

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At least it's not "infamous" doctors. Right?