Thursday Oct 8
Today we visited the Suzhou water town Zhouzhuang. Zhouzhuang is an ancient city based on river culture that was the cultural hub in the region before Shanghai. We walked through the maze of streets lined with little shops selling silk goods, pearls, copper, following the flow of canals. Evoking Amsterdam and Venice but with black tiled roofs and canals teeming with flat bottomed water taxis propelled by long poles
Friday Oct 9
Next we headed to Huangshan to go up Qiyun Mountain. We took a cablecar up a good part of the way. Qiyun Mountain is where Zhang Sanfeng went after his time in Wu Dang. As he had become famous, he sought out a place to cultivate in solitude. 
A Daoist temple is nestled into the mountain face near the cave where Zhang Sanfeng spent years cultivating and where his crypt is located. Even all these hundreds of years later, Zhang Sanfeng’s energy was palpable!
In the evening we visited Xidi, a UNESCO World Heritage site with traditional Huizhou style buildings and layout. A Fish Lantern parade was great fun with a water screen movie, light show and dragon fish parade. Traditionally the parade was done to seek blessings from the dragon deity. Ending with fireworks, the evening left us happy and tired.
