Let's Call it a Holiday

Monday was the Communist Labor Day here in China.  This, together with schools also being closed until Tuesday due to the opening week of the Shanghai World Expo, has made for a good few beautiful days the boys can call a holiday.  As a bonus, John's cousin Ally, and her husband Mike are also in town, which gave us another good reason to sightsee.  While John, Bracken and Parker hit the golf course, The five of us headed to Zhujiajiao----a water village rich with old Chinese heritage, and no plans of changing it.

The city is small, but when this Chinese man offered to "drive" us to the entrance of the village for just a small fee, we couldn't resist!

Once in the water village, we explored the "Venice of Shanghai" with all the bridges and canals.  The boys love knowing that "Mission Impossible 2" was filmed here.

Need we mention a few other million Chinese people had the same idea of exploring this Chinese water village the same day we did?

There was some definitely interesting food choices (and smells) found in this village that the boys very openly voiced their disapproval....(can't say I disagreed)

However, they were both thrilled when this Chinese man hand designed them a dragon and rooster candy sucker.  Absolutely incredible to watch!

We definitely did not want to leave without taking our own boat ride down the river.  The boys loved the thrill of skimming closely by passing boats all along the way.

We all enjoyed the boat ride, but even better was watching the fisherman catch these tiny fish, and immediately "de-gutting" their insides.  School or no school....life in China is definitely a classroom!