One of the favorite discussions in the Sundays evenings of the station of rains in Shanghai, is to try to come to an agreement on who is the best of the Villages of the Channel. There are named Villages of the Channel to six villages placed in the Delta of the river Yangtze, in the triangle formed between Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou, who share a series of common characteristics:

- channels are crossed by one or several.
- to have preserved the original constructions to the shore of the same ones.
- to support a local population still dedicated to the traditional, fundamentally agricultural activities.
- to be provided with a long history, and important traces of the same one in his ancient city.
- to have shown his commitment to preserve these characteristics.

The UNESCO granted a few years ago to this set of villages the common emblem of Patrimony of the Humanity. But these six villages (Tongli, Luzhou, Zhuozhuang, Xitang, Wuzhen and Zhuhijiao), in addition to sharing a series of characteristics, have others that make them distinctive.

I must recognize that in the beginning, also there were looking like to me better Zhuozhuang and Wuzheng, since they are, let's say, more spectacular than Zhujiajiao, but in fact, when you have visited them a few times, you realize that they have turned too much into a shop window, in which it is difficult to continue an alternative way, which should complement the beauty of the restored constructions, with something similar to a life of the common people. On the other hand Tongli, Luzhou and Xitang, seem too tasteless to me. That is to say I believe that only Zhujiajiao combines the suitable doses of restored and showy traditional constructions for the travelers, with a high percentage of alleys where the people keep on doing his lives not transformed by the arrival of the tourism.

The first Zhujiajiao sight, with his enormous buses parking, usually disappoints a little the western travelers, but it is not necessary to forget that it is to only 50 km of one of the metropolises more densely filled with the planet: Shanghai, and with which only one minuscule proportion of his population decides to go out to visit the villages occasionally, might already cause the city to collapse.

As soon as one enters Zhujiajiao in strict sense, after the control of the entry, it begins the good roll. A narrow street paved of traditional form, with two tiers of white houses on both sides, takes us even the first one of the bridges of Zhujiajiao, the bridge of the Huangchengmiao, which as his name indicates, on having crossed it, goes over to the Huangchengmiao or Temple of the Gods of the City. Formerly every Chinese city had a temple of this type, erected in honor, generally of a historical personage who realized an important contribution to the safety of the city, deified.

Before him there is the street most animated by the village, the Beidajie or Big Street of the North, since the street thinks up in direction north - south. Following this street to the right, that is to say, towards the north, during almost one kilometer, there is a succession of shops and restaurants, with some museito occasionally between them, the majority with restored wooden front, and with big yellow banderoles, on which he has written himself with Chinese characters, as it was a custom in the antiquity, the activity to which they devote themselves. Most of the shops and restaurants of the left side, they have a door to the street, and other one to the channel that passes parallel to this one, it was the traditional disposition of the housings in the ancient times. The houses lines are interrupted by two beautiful bridges of wood that cross the channel, the Bridge Lang or of the Gallery, and the Bridge Tai'an or of the Big Calmness, also called Bridge of the Family I Have, of only one stone block, which was constructed in 1584.

A little further on it goes over to the Big Bridge Fangshen, which with his 72 meters long and five arches is the biggest of the area of Shanghai, it was constructed in 1571 with the alms gathered in a nearby temple. On the foot of the bridge there are a few kiosks, where the local population usually relaxes. On him, there are usually some sellers who offer minnows to be liberated in the waters of the channel, since the name of this bridge means "to Liberate captive animals", an activity that according to the beliefs Buddhists provides big merit to which the practice. Although it turns out to be paradoxical that so that some of them gain this merit, others have to lose it, going fishing to the fish.

To another side of the Big Bridge there are a few quite interesting callecitas, especially those who, going towards the left again, go towards the pier. In them, the life passes calmly, and although some residents have transformed they are street view rooms of his residence in a small workshop or room of exhibition, it is far from the clamor of the main street.

If instead of following the Big Street of the North towards the north, we take it in south direction, at once we leave the shops and commercial district, to walk along a few charming alleys, of which they salt small bridges of stone or wood, like the Bridge of the Family Qi (Qijiaqiao), also known between the local population like the "Bridge of the Peace", because in the dynasty Ming it was crossed by the troops that were going out to defend themselves from the attacks of the Japanese pirates. Nowadays the Zhujiajiao people, still have the habit of crossing this bridge when it goes out of trip, since one believes that it will make them return in peace. After this bridge the channel is opened like a "v", to one of the sides it stays the Bridge Yongfeng, which, as his name indicates, one is considered that the one that it should cross will enjoy the plenty, and in another branch is the Bridge of Guanyin. These bridges show us an always variable panorama of the principal channels of Zhujiajiao, and the ships that circulate along them. Nevertheless, my recommendation is to cross first at the edge of the Chenghuangmiao, and to take there one of the boats that make the trip for the channel, for, do thus an idea of Zhujiajiao to themselves, and be able to return then walking, enjoying the different panoramas that the city offers us.

The arrival to the pier is announced by the presence of three almost contiguous small bridges, called the Bridge of Yong'an, the Bridge of Zhonglong and the Bridge of Yongquan, there are, according to the local legends, the head, body and tail of a dragon that one day came mysteriously from the sky, being placed on this channel.

So big number of bridges, 20 survive at present, of the 36 with which it was provided in imperial times, they show us that his function exceeds the mere needs for communication of a population of several thousands of inhabitants. The bridges also have a religious meaning, as we see for the numerous legends and traditions relative to them, someone related to the Buddhism, and others with local superstitions. As Wolfram Eberhard (1) indicates "the bridge connects things that are separated: therefore the dead persons must cross the narrow bridge that communicates this world with other, and the sinners who do not deserve to reach another shore, they fall down in the waters pestilentes full of blood and pus." The minority Miao, which he inhabits at present in the province of Guizhou and other regions of the south of China and the Asian Southeast, also has a narrow symbolic relation with the bridges, to which he considers a mystical element that facilitates the communication between this world and the gold world. This bridges plenty impregnates therefore, to the village of Zhujiajiao, of a deep religious sense.

Although the right shore of the Channel is the most animated and most replete with commerce, the left seems more destined for the pleasure, since a few shops distribute the space with snack bars and restaurants, carefully decorated, that offer always interesting conference of the village. Any visit must tell Zhujiajiao in spite of allowing time for, once liberated of the madness of the commerce, the photo, and the continuous one to discover of new interesting corners, to be able to relax before a good coffee, or a beer, in some of the snack bars of this area.

	Sight from Bridge of the Peace

Zhujiajiao is the village of the channel the most next to Shanghai, since it is placed to approximately 50 km. It is a city of the most ancient of the area, and in fact, in the dynasty Song, it was already considered to be an important market. It was quite godforsaken until the national and international success obtained by Zhouzhuang, it induced to restore it, to renew it or to reconstruct it to forced marches (including, for example, the construction of a network of sewerage without which the visit would be impossible, nonexistent before the year 2000). Although they have restored and opened to the public a series of monuments in Zhujiajiao, like those who can be seen in the map, I think that for a western one, the real Zhujiajiao delight resides in his alleys, channels, bridges and constructions.

Nevertheless, of different monuments indicated in the tourist routes, they can visit some, like the Temple of the Gods of the City (Chenghuangmiao), famous person in the region for his stage for the theatrical representations (although it seems shocking to the western ones, the temples were one of the places where more assiduously theatrical representations were realized), his big abacus, and the tree gingko pilova that grows in his interior. Also one can his rising to the Monastery Yuanjin, for the panoramic conference that it provides with the whole Zhujiajiao, or know the ancient residence of the family Xi, with his interesting engravings in walls and doors. The Drugstore Tong Tianhe, founded in 1877. The Museum of the Route of the Silk shows the ancient skills of textile of silk, and the customs of the Route of the Silk as it bloomed in the Dynasty Tang.

(1) Eberhard, Wolfram. - Chinese Symbols. Rouledge. New York. 1986

Text and Photos: Pedro Ceinos Arcones - 2004-2008

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