Fengjing

A while back I joined the Arts and Gallery group (through the American Women's Club) on a day trip to a small village called Fengjing.  It is an ancient water town built in the Yuan Dynasty (around 1271), about a two hour drive from Shanghai city center.  It is well known because of the many handicrafts that are made here and because of the famous farmer's paintings that come from there.  Jinshan Peasant Paintings as they are known are a special technique of painting, they look very cartoonish but the art form is actually difficult to achieve and the artists spend many years perfecting it.
Our first stop was the peasant village where the artists live and sell their work.  You walk into each "gallery" which is someone's home and get to see their work and also some of the artists actually at work!

The center of the village, with examples of peasant paintings blown up.

I think this cat got into the paint  before his nap.

Inside one of the galleries.

Example of the Jinshan style of painting.

Ater we viewed all the art work and made our purchases we headed into the town of Fengjing, about 15 minute drive from the village.  We wondered around the cute town and had lunch at a local restaurant.  We each had an order of potstickers, a big bowl of noodles and a soda and shared a huge plate of veggies for a total of 40rmb, or about 6 dollars.  Crazy, and it was so good!

View of the canal.

Cute dog someone dyed pink.

These geese were eating rice for lunch, lol.

Pick your veggie for lunch!

Drying ginger.

Even the buildings were painted in the Jinshan peasant style!