Part 4: Shanghai Diary -- Zhujiajiao

Since Sunday was a day off, our host, David Gran, brought us to the water village of Zhujiajiao, on the outskirts of Shanghai. It’s a 1700-year-old village built along a system of canals, sort of an Asian Venice. 

The whole town opens to the alleys in open-fronted shops, with dark wood interiors. The houses are so small that they cook out in the street. 

We were joined by animation professor and publisher Mr and Mrs Wang Wei from Peking University, along with nine of his animation students. I gave Mr. Wang a portrait I drew of him as he sketched with a fountain pen, and he generously gave me his drawing. 

Mr. Wang and his wife Ying Zhang publish “Fantasy Art” magazine, which has featured a global selection of artists to a Chinese audience. He is currently writing a book on sketching for animation, which I'm excited to participate in.

We sketched the first picture from aboard a fishing boat that Mr. Wang arranged impromptu, by paying the fisherman to let us sit on his docked skiff. This is the Fangsheng bridge, the largest and tallest stone bridge in the region. 

The village is all stone and wood, with tile roofs. You can either get around by boat, or press through the crowds along the narrow alleyways. 

For lunch, a friend of Mr. Wang, Mr Liang Gang, of DigiBook treated us all to a local feast. They just kept on bringing dishes, one more interesting than the next. I ate the snails, full-body frogs, shrimps, and little whole fish. One of the students brought a live fish and the restaurant cooked it. There were vegetables we had never tried before, like stuffed lotus roots.

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Mr. Wang Wei
Digibook


Shanghai Diary Series:
Part 1: Getting There
Part 2: American School
Part 3: Old Town
Part 4: Jujiajiao
Part 5: Goat Man
Part 6: Sketching in Restaurants
Part 7: China Rising
Part 8: Chinese/Russian Drawing
Part 9: Sketching in Shanghai (Video)