The historical watertown - Zhu Jia Jiao

Today, we visited the infamous historical watertown - Zhu Jia Jiao.
We were told that this watertown is already 3000 years old!!


The impressive part is how well the buildings are preserved and I was amazed with how the residents balance the old and the new in this town.


In this watertown, people live in the rows of houses along the river. They rely on the river to provide them with water for consumption, food, washing, etc.

Many years back, the government converted this watertown into a tourists' attraction. All the houses became tourist shops.

What I see now is a very commercialised town. The streets are clean, the shops sell souvenirs, and the restaurants are air-conditioned. I would not say that this is a bad thing as tourism provides means of living for the residents. But somehow the beauty of this commercialised town does not appeal to me as much as I wish...