.....times of refreshing.....

This is the first time I heard about Haining, which is a city located in between Shanghai and Hangzhou. We went to Haining after a day and night stop-over at Yiwu, which is another city I never heard of , till I joined this trip, though I have heard of Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing and etc. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of our trip to Haining was the visit to the ancient city of Yanguan, as well as our DIY shopping at night in the city where our hotel is conveniently located at the shopping belt. Coming back to the Yanguan Ancient City, I always hope to visit those ancient houses with a canal in between, where I always saw it in those wuxia Chinese dramas. Well, I have my wishes fulfilled! It's so nice to see so many beautiful places over there, amid the cold weather. Well, the weather was very cold during these few days where it swing from 3 celcius to 8 celsius, but I love it! It's even nice to walk at the open pathways in the ancient city.

The entrance to the city, which is a fort. I climbed up to the fort and had good view around.

I am captivated by the ancient houses, which is as though I traveled back in time or I was at those filming sets

Another view of the walking path. Those concrete blocks are so sturdy!

A picturesque view except 'bomb' by one of my tour fellow :)

The river that I mentioned. What I understand is that during in the old days, the river served as a transportation line.

We also checked out the interior of one of the houses, which was maintained for historical and educational purpose. We also needed to pay to enter.

An intrinsic carvings of one of the entrance

The seats of the hosts

Not sure what is this, probably a decorative item?

Seats for guests

Another hall in the inner section of a house

A stage

Another interesting one is an ancient brothel, where a 2008 Chinese drama, The Duke and  The Cauldron was filmed here. I did watch that serial back then!

The entrance to the ancient brothel

Drawings of ancient ladies

A room in the brothel

Here's a view from the top of the fort, where I climbed up when leaving the city. Should have ask the lady to turn around...hahaha

A view from the fort

Another view from the fort showing trees besides the river

 Oh.. We also had our lunch at the ancient city and it's an healthy lunch as we ate mostly veggies except for one or two meats, where I enjoyed the pork braised meat a lot!

'Ma Lak' tofu or Spicy tofu.... good for the cold weather

Can't remember this dish ... err.. pork with yam or radish .. I ate too much there! hahaha...

Braised Pork meat ...yummy

Cauliflowers

Another veggie... I can't recognised this one too

Yes, veggie again ...

And more veggies....

We head off to the hotel for our DIY shopping at night later. And, again, I love the cold weather especially at night ... muahahahaha!

Have a great week!