XiTang is a little ancient water town sort of half way between Hangzhou and Shanghai. It has lots of well preserved Tang and Qing dynasty buildings (really old - 700 to 1300 yrs- side note: the students can rattle off the order of the dynasties like our kids rattle off the alphabet). Besides having lots of ancient buildings and waterways another thing they are noted for is that lots of Chinese soap operas and movies are filmed here. Most of their soap operas are either set in ancient time periods or have a military theme to them. When I get a massage, the TV is always on so I sort of enjoy watching the soups set in ancient time periods because of the neat costumes – especially since I can’t understand a word they say.
