Nanxun ducks
(View across a canal: a woman is eating lunch and the ducks wait for the pieces of food she is distributing)
Nanxun is an old town near Suzhou, but unlike Suzhou, it still retains a huge amount of the older architecture and atmosphere. Along each side of this canal, there are shops, stalls, places to eat, and it’s full of people just getting on with their lives. This lady is having lunch, some people were napping (which seems to be a very popular activity here) and others were attempting to sell us small handmade toys, jewellery and snacks. Ducks, chickens and dogs were roaming about, completely unhindered.
In a way, this was the China I hoped to see (and hoped still existed) because it is so different from any place I have ever known. It also evokes a strange feeling; it’s like being in a dream or a part of my imagination fed with folk tales and legend. It’s a little dramatic, but it feels like finding a huge turreted fairytale castle, or a secret forest cottage, it is a place I have read about, yet never expected to see for myself. Just outside the town, we passed a collection of paddy fields, nestled up against houses, and I felt the same way. I know they exist, but sometimes the shock of being there and seeing them is a surprise in itself.
