Qibao (aka little Venice)

And that's a stretch. Qibao is one of the metro stops off of line 9. It took us about 30 minutes to get there from the hotel, which is great. The cost? 4 kuai each (let's say 60 cents, each way). We read about this little city (maybe its not a city, I'm not really sure) in a few different travel books. It was mentioned in Lonely Planet's Shanghai book and it is also briefly mentioned in a brochure we picked up called "Touring Shanghai via Metro". It was lightly raining and very overcast yesterday, so we almost decided to stay at the hotel... but then we figured, what's a little rain going to hurt? I'm so glad we went. It was super relaxing and great scenery. The only downside was the boats weren't operating yesterday because the water was too choppy. Boo.

This is the "entrance" to the canal side of town. Very Chinese, right? Let's start with the views. Despite the unfavorable weather, the views were still beautiful. I think my phone did a great job of taking these pictures for your viewing pleasure.

When you first walk in to this little town area, you come to a large open square. Straight ahead is the bridge to cross the main canal. To the left is a lovely little restaurant with this neat rock sculpture.

There's the canal. Kinda murky water, but who cares? Still pretty to look at, just wouldn't want to swim in it. :) 

Here's the boats. Don't they look like something you'd find on a road block for Amazing Race? It only costs 10 quai to ride them. I already want to go back :)

Right after you cross the bridge, you run into several of these stands. In all those little boxes are different stones. They'll either make you a necklace with the stone, or one of those red hanging tassels for good luck.

Now for the food. Ashley and I didn't eat "lunch" here, but of course we ate something. I actually had good ol' McDonalds. However, this place was bursting with food choices. See for yourself.

 Fresh crab, anyone?

Above you'll see all sorts of foods. Wish I could tell you what they were, but that's not the case. I saved the best for last:

You might have to click to enlarge. I think those birds on the stick are duck--head and all. Maybe not... I didn't stay around long enough to find out!

Of course the post isn't complete without pictures of Ashley and me. That's the street Ashley and I went window shopping on :)