Han Lin Fu Di restaurant, Wuzhen, Tongxiang City, Zhe Jiang Province

Han Lin Fu Di restaurant, Wuzhen, Tongxiang City, Zhe Jiang Province
Friday 12 May, 2006

Wuzhen is located approx. 2 hours from Shanghai and has a history dating back 1200 years. It is known as the Venice of China with it's canals, houses built over the water and beautiful bridges. As you enter the Wuzhen tour area you realise you are stepping into a suburb where some locals still live - many run tourist activities such as navigating the gondolas up the canals, running a store/ restaurant or collecting tickets at the many different museums.

We opted to take a gondola tour first and this was by far the highight. Our 'driver' sang to us along the way which earned him a tip of 10 RMB (about $1.50 AUS). The locals use the canals to fish, do their washing and collect water - it's a bizarre feeling to cruise past a family home where you can see they are sitting down to their midday meal and they turn around a wave at you after exchanging a friendly 'Ni Hao' (hello).

The old town is worth a walk around and there are an abundance of museums e.g. the Hundred Bed Museum which displays many hand carved beds from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1616-1911), Blue print cotton dyeing workshop and Xiuzhen Taoist Temple and Ancient Stage.

We had lunch at Han Lin Fu Di restaurant where they have a set menu. We had no idea what was on the menu as it was all in Chinese but were pleasantly surprised. Our meal was bought to the table in one go, so it looked like we had ordered a banquet:

- Pork meatball & vegetable soup
- Leg of suckling pig (tender, melt in your mouth suckling pig)
- Steamed fish (the whole fish cooked in a light soy sauce)
- Dandelion tea
- Steamed vegetables
- Plate of sugar cane (chew on the sugar cane to suck out the refreshing sugar liquid)

The staff did the bare minimum by bringing the food to the table and then standing around chatting for the duration of our lunch. When we tried to secure their attention, they assumed we wanted forks instead of chopsticks so dropped them on the table and disappeared. Let's face it customer service is not high on the agenda here but the food was great and Wuzhen is well worth a visit.

Han Lin Fu Di restaurant - Wuzhen, Tongxiang City, Zhe Jiang Province - 0573 8718799

http://www.wuzhen.com.cn/oldweb/wuzhen.eng/survey/index.asp