imran
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« Reply #20 on: July 16, 2014, 01:36:39 AM » |
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Zhouzhang is a beautiful, picturesque village of willow-lined canals that are contiguous with rows of waterside buildings with whitewashed walls and gray slate roofs, and whose wooden eaves are upturned in the quintessentially Chinese fashion. "Inland" from the canals and the stone arch bridges are streets paved with cobblestones.
Since the 12th century, Zhouzhuang has been connected to the Grand Canal, which extends from Hangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north. This development naturally brought prosperity to the region of Suzhou, and it was thanks to this prosperity that the region in part developed its own scholars and artists, and in part attracted them from outside. Many of these artists and members of the literati were either native sons, or chose to make the idyllic watertowns of the region their new home.
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