Table of Contents

Ancient Scenes and Foreign Styles
The Hundred-Room Building
The Legend of Xishi
The Xiaolian Villa
The Jiaye Hall Library
Jili Silk in Universal Demand
"The Number One Mansion of Jiangnan"
East Meets West in the "Red House"
Zhang Jingjiang——Fundraiser for Sun Yat-sen
Historical Work with Catastrophic Consequences
Arts and Gourmet Foods
Places of Interest
Overnight in the Old Town
Choicest Food
How to Get to Nanxun

Sample Pages Preview

After crossing the Tongji Bridge, wecome to the Xunxi Stream, a windingriver, lined on both sides by dwellinghouses with covered walkways, arcadehouses, some high, some low, facingeach other across the stream. They havepink walls and gray tiles. Stone bridgeslink the two sides. Following the curvesof the river, the long street winds along,with its covered colonnades and archgates of every shape and size. The firegables between the houses are of different height andthey are so close to each other that they look as if theywere overlapped. At a quick glance, the two-story houseslook uniform in style, but actually their forms are quitedifferent; some looking like clouds, and some with acurved profile projecting beyond the roof; but the ma-jority have high corbel gables. They gaze proudly up intothe azure sky, but their inverted images are reflected inthe clear rippled water along with the stone steps andpiers along the stream. There is great variety: the stonesteps of the piers down to the water are single or double,broad or narrow; the houses along the river are high orlow, and every one is different in terms of its exteriorjoinery.