Random Wuzhen Moments

 This post is going to be a bit rambling.  Hang with me if you can.

We hit several other attractions, in addition to the Soy Sauce Factory and the Steel Foundry.  Some of them did not allow photos.  Others did allow, but the camera battery decided to finish its day a little early.  So I'll try to describe rather than show.

The top photo is the entrance to the Wedding Museum.  This museum shows examples of traditional wedding costumes, decorations, sedan chairs, bridal chambers, etc.  No photos were allowed inside, but trust me there was a lot of red.  Red is the traditional lucky color for weddings and other auspicious occasions.  The photo features, in the circle,the Chinese character for "double happiness".  It's called double happiness because the character is made by doubling the character for joy, 喜.  It appears on everything associated with weddings. 

 The photo above is the drying yard at the Foliage Dying pavilion.  This attraction shows how artistic patterns (normally foliage) were created in muslin cloth.  In the workshop, templates are used to apply an intricate design to the cloth, using a layer of starch paste as a masking agent.  The cloth is then dyed in vats of indigo or other coloring agents.  Then the starch paste is removed and the cloth is hung to dry in the sun.

Probably the most moving attraction was the Foot Binding Museum.  Unfortunately, they didn't allow photos.  The museum described the process of foot binding, a tradition that endured almost 1000 years and died out only in the mid-20th century.  I remember growing up and hearing that, in China, small feet were considered a mark of beauty.  I did not realize the scale at which foot binding was practiced....how millions of young girls were subjected to mutilation resulting in 3 to 6 inch long feet.You can read more about the practice of foot binding at this link.  The museum also displayed hundreds of the shoes worn by the foot bound women.  Tiny things, they were, just a little larger than the first shoes you buy for your baby.

As a side note, a couple of Theresa's friends were down in Shanghai in August and chanced upon two women - they guessed 70 years old or so - who had been foot bound.  And some of my co-workers tell me that, even today,  mothers will keep their daughters in too-small shoes in hopes of keeping their feet from growing too much.

 The photo above shows the architectural feature that is most associated with Wuzhen - the water chamber.  The water chamber is a room built out over the water on stilts or pilings.

 One of the enjoyable things about Wuzhen is that there is a lot of attention to detail.  The photos above and below show some of the details.  Above is a typical carving from a wooden door (actually more like a screen).  Below are the windows on a typical water house.  The white portions of the window are made by wedging thin slices of mother-of-pearl into a cross-hatching of metal.

The photo below is of the "dragon-shaped farm".  It's called such because it is, in essence, and island in the river and the island is shaped like a dragon.  The workers are maintaining what appear to be ditches/dikes for irrigation.

 Below is a photo of some early morning workers.  I thought at first they might be the garbage pick-up....but after a closer look I believe they were delivering supplies to someone upstream.

 The next few photos are random shots of life on the water.

 The photo below is a typical window with flowers in the window box.  This reminds me of the flowers in the window boxes in Alsace, France.

 Final comment....there were plenty of shops in Wuzhen looking to separate the tourist from his money.  Above is a shoe store offering hand-beaded slippers.  Photo below was taken in a store that sold various good-luck charms.  In case you haven't figured it out yet, these talismans can be found everywhere.  The normal formula is some kind of medallion or symbol with a long silk tassel attached to it.  Most cars have one of these good luck charms hanging from the rear-view mirror.  Many others have green and red streamers tied to the back bumpers to protect against collisions.  One of the bus drivers on the 307 line has one with the image of Mao featured prominently in the center.  The photo below shows a set of charms featuring Buddhist symbols.  Maybe I'm juvenile, but I still freak out every time I see a swastika on public display.