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Xitang (Chinese: 西塘; pinyin: Xītáng) is an ancient scenic town in Jiashan County, Zhejiang Province, China.

Xitang is level, densely distributed with rivers, and has a very quiet natural environment. With nine rivers converging at this town, dividing it into eight sections, there are many stone bridges linking it together.

In the older section of town, all the buildings face onto the canals, the true transportation system of the area. Boat tours are available for tourists.

Xitang contains numerous older residences and old temples such as Seventh Master’s Temple. Xitang preserves a tranquil ambience and scenic beauty, which makes it a very popular tourist attraction, and is frequently depicted in Chinese landscape painting.

For more pictures, please click http://s885.photobucket.com/albums/ac53/limaizi/Xitang/?albumview=grid

I went to Hongcun on May, 2009. I lived in the villiage for three nights, my room is near the lake. It’s really a good time.

Hongcun Village is about 11 km from the county town of Yixian County. The whole village was originally laid out in the shape of an ox. The west end of the village, called Leigang Hill, resembles an ox head and that is where two huge trees stand like ox horns. At the front and rear of the village are four bridges that span a Jiyin stream and resemble four legs of the ox. The several hundred well-arranged houses form the body of the ox, and the 1,000-meter-long Jiyin stream that meanders through the village is regarded as its intestines. A crescent pond in the village is the ox‘s fourth stomach, and a larger South Lake is its reticulum, the second stomach. The villagers of Hongcun long ago designed this marvelous landscape.

See more introductions here,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongcun

I went to Tianyi Chamber on Sept. 21st, and I have taken many pictures there. Please find the inredocution of Tianyi Chamber and the pictures as below:

The Tianyi Chamber (天一阁), located in Ningbo city, is the oldest existing library in China. Founded in 1561 during the Ming Dynasty, in its heydays, it boasted a collection of 70,000 volume of antique books.

During the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong visited Tianyi Chamber, he ordered officials to draw schematics of Tianyi Chamber’s building plan and book cases as prototype to build several imperial libraries including Wenyuan Chamber in the Forbidden City, Wenjin Chamber in the Mountain Resort to house the Siku Quanshu encyclopedia.

After the Opium War, the British army pirated many history and geography collections from Tianyi Chamber, followed by thefts from local thieves; by 1940, the collection dwindled to less than 20,000 volumes. After the founding of PRC, due to government effort and donation by privated collectors, the collection now recovered some what to about 30,000 volumes, mostly rare antique Ming dynasty printed and hand copied volumes.

In 1982, Tianyi Chamber was established by the Chinese authorities as a National Heritage Site.

I made a trip in Shengsi during June 26th-28th. I have spent a really good time there. Learn more about Shengsi, please read below information. And you will also see some pictures beow.

The Shengsi Islands (simplified Chinese: 嵊泗列岛; traditional Chinese: 嵊泗列島; pinyin: Shèngsìlièdǎo) (sometimes translated as Shengsi Archipelago) are geographically part of Zhoushan Archipelago and located in the mouth of the Yangtze River (east of Hangzhou Bay). They comprise 394 islands, each with an area larger than 500 m², but of which just 18 are inhabitable. The largest island is Sijiao Island (泗礁山 Sìjiāoshān) with an area of 21.2 km2>.

The area is administrated by Shengsi County (嵊泗县 Shèngsìxiàn) in the Zhoushan Prefecture (舟山地区 Zhōushān dìqū). The islands have subtropical climate, with yearly average temperature of 15.8 °C. The area is also notable as touristic destination and fishery area that attracts more than 100,000 fishermen every winter.

For more pictures, please click here: 
http://s885.photobucket.com/albums/ac53/limaizi/Shengsi/?albumview=grid