christmas in zhujiajio, china

The coolest Christmas ever! We're in Zhujiajio, China enjoying the sights:

We rode in rickshaws through the alleys and by all the shops,




See how there's just enough room for one rickshaw? People just meander around in front of them and it's totally normal. No PERSONAL BUBBLES in China!


Visited a Buddhist Temple. (where the were a few Monk guys there worshipping)

A beautiful candle that was lit for prayer. I accidentally stepped too close to one, I was distracted looking upwards thus resulting in a little hole in my jacket. Oops.


Aimee in front of the Prayer Tree.





And to think that someone actually lived here once! There were pictures of the ancestors that lived there inside of little rooms off the main courtyard. You can spend hours and hours inside and still not get the entire story of a place. Absolutely amazing.


Oh! We got to ride in a Gondola! It's amazing what you can see from the water, going through the village.


The way they move is just man-power. They row in a figure eight motion and they take you upstream at a nice relaxing pace.

I didn't get this guy, he was just on top of the air conditioning unit. I remember Mom saying several times, "Don't ask 'why'...it's CHINA!" Ooooookaaaaay.





This bridge is like 400 (or something like that) years old, one of the oldest in Zhujiajio. It's a subject for the artists, many paintings, embroideries, and carvings.

(the "walls" on this bridge come up to my knees...safety is something you have to be responsible for. If you trip and fall overboard, it's your own fault!)



This was great. A lady kept bugging us to buy some fish that were in baggies. She didn't care that we already had one in our hands! You buy a lucky fish, then go up to the top of the bridge and drop it back into the water. Poor little lucky fish doing belly flops from 30 feet above the water. Here I am making my fish face, I'm concentrating really hard.

Two handsome guys in a Gondola.

Gorgeous pagodas are everywhere you look!



This guy answered his cell phone when he was paddling his Gondola--and ran into ours! We commented on how Americans have a hard time talking on a cell phone while driving, imagine trying to steer a boat with a single paddle!



We got to visit inside of a Silk Museum, hardly any electricity and no heat. There was an entire ROOM made up of this collage. This collage was only made out of Jade. Lots and lots of different colors, types, intensities, etc. of strictly jade. It was breathtaking. Oh, they had a big picture of Buddha. In front of him was a bowl that had money in it and a cushion where you could kneel and worship him. Interesting.

We got to see how they made silk by hand. What an intensely long process. Quite fascinating.



We went back through the alleys where we just had seen it from the rickshaws to all the little (cold!) shops weaving all through the city. Then onto my most favorite part...shopping!

We were famous everywhere we went. There was always someone that wanted pictures with us, and most of the time it was girls wanting pictures with Aaron!

This young artist was really cool and had some really good stuff. He was so talented and we bought this carving of the old bridge. We asked him if he would write 'Zhujiajio' on it and then autograph his piece of work. He sure did! We have this above our mantle. (I'll post pictures later)
I also got BLACK PEARLS!! Chalk one up for China!

Definitely one for the memory books. Loved Christmas!