Oriental Venice: Shaoxing, China

Other than the obvious choices of Suzhou and Hangzhou, I thought of visiting a small water town, Shaoxing. Famous for its rice wine and stinky tofu, this old water town is located about three hours south-west of Shanghai by train. The counterpart to Hangzhou’s West Lake is actually found in Shaoxing and, perhaps logically, is...

Get a Gondola Ride in Venice

  “At the bridge I stood lately in the brown night. From afar came a song: as a golden drop it welled over the quivering surface. Gondolas, lights, and music — drunken it swam out into the twilight. My soul, a stringed instrument, sang to itself, invisibly touched, a secret gondola song, quivering with iridescent...