Another bus, another city....Lioacheng, Shandong (the "Water City")...another of China's "expanded cities": 5.7 million population in all, though the old center city has only about 1.3 million of them.
A view down upon a model of the center city easily tells why it has the nickname "Water City". The square island in the "L" shaped lake is the historic core, and the wobbly blue line to the right is the Grand Canal. The broad sweeping blue line to its right is the "new canal" (more on it later), and the round lake with a round island, at the bottom, is part of a planned expansion.
In the city one can see old neighborhoods, and old modes of transpor....
...as well as new modes: a owner sits and acquaints himself with his new car.
Newer buses ply the old streets with pedestrians, motorbikes, cars all trying to get around it.
A new take on old tradition of presenting flower baskets for grand openings takes place in an old neighborhood...
and new forms of urban housing rise not far away.
New parks are venues for old games (here Chinese Chess), or...
...old past times, kite flying. Can you imagine how big the kite is from the size of this string reel??
And as interesting as Liaocheng is for its old and new, it is it embracing its Grand Canal heritage which sets is apart from the other cities we have seen. A major museum to the Canal.....
...has three floors of exhibits, all up to date with LED lights and information signage. This map shows the entire 1,100 mile route from Beijing (北京－at top with the Red Star) to Hangzhou (at the bottom south and west of Shanghai－上海）。This trip started at Red Dot #3 from the Red Star and now is in #6. In the next journal segment, we will reach the SW <> NE blue line (the Yellow River), which is as far south along the Canal as we go.
Wall carvings show famous scenes along the canal...
...and models show what boats and life along the canal looked like.
Other exhibits introduced other canals around the world, including the second longest: the Eire Canal in New York State (350 miles, or about 1/3rd as long as the Grand Canal).
The Canal in real life has been made into a long double sided park...
...with new bridges in traditional arch span design.
On its bank is the Shanxi-Shaanxi Provincial Guildhall, built between 1743 and 1809.
Ornate detailed construction such as this took time!
It was a multi-use compound for merchants from these provinces, providing food and lodging around many courtyards, as well as hall for worship to Buddhist and Daoist dieties. The traditional pair of lions across the yard...
...have a rather unusual depiction of the baby lion sucking its mother's toe-nail.
Popular forms of entertainment were held on the stage in the front of the courtyard......
...and popular forms of decoration, such as climbing dragons, were placed out front of....
...the worship halls.
A side courtyard holds a pleasant garden, with a gazebo, which has ...
....a highly decorated ceiling.
And of course there are always pedestrian side buildings, here a collection spot for brooms, to discover.
But what about the square island in the middle of the lake? It is accessed across an undulating bridge, and...
...then an 3-arch curved one and....
...through a imposing gate, to find....
...an all new old city! Street corners are places for ponds with waterfalls or...
...large fanciful stones, outside one or two story buildings done in Qing architectural style.
Stone carvings and...
...wood carvings decorate the walls and metal sculptures take the place of real people from that time.
And the tourists love it! Things to take pictures of, or...
...have one's picture taken amongst ("What are these guys laughing about? This thing's heavy!").
Of course this IS China, so one must watch for decorative items, such as holes in the paving so to see the water element flowing below, or impediments to walking, such as cars parking on the sidewalks.
The Gangue Tower stands at the intersection of the two major streets, which have been rebuilt as the main commercial streets.
A woman did not want photos of this construction taken. When asked why, she said it is her store and wants photos of it taken when it is finished and beautiful. When explained why the photos were being taken, she was pleased, and showed off her Traditional Chinese Medicine store.
She was pleased to show the interior and the other side, which was finished, and have her photo taken in front of the entry.
Peering over walls on the edge of the rebuilt areas, glimpses were gained of construction of more new old buildings continuing apace.
In one side street probably a migrant worker found a place to park his rig and camp out for the night.
Back across the bridges...
...to a temple in a park on a small island, and...
...then a lakeside plaza, where a child gets a head start on learning how to drive a recumbent bicycle.
The setting sun glints off two dragons playing with a golden pearl, as the moon beyond looks over Liaocheng.
