Wuzhen

The China 2009 Total Solar Eclipse
Omega Holidays, Wuzhen China.

Wuzhen

Wuzhen is actually a modern town but Wuzhen Water Village is a reconstruction of the original site. It has become a major tourist attraction because it is regarded as the ‘Venice of China. Here is a link to a great site I found about the place. On arrival we were booked into our Hotel, the Tong An Hotel - superb! Because of the delayed flight out it did mean that I had only about 3 hours to check out the meeting room, walk the mile or so to the viewing area set aside for us and get a quick shower before the welcome meal. Fortunately the meeting room and viewing site were excellent - just as Pete Lawrence had found so at least that was a load off my mind. After a slightly confusing meal (we asked for no fish and instead kept getting the fish dishes!) I readied in the meeting hall and gave my presentation to around 28 Omega Holiday Eclipse chasers but had to give the warning that the weather prospects were looking bleak but with a slim glimmer of hope.

After the talk Jayne and I took a short walk round part of the waterways whilst a major thunderstorm raged on. However it added to the scene as the waterways were gently lit at night and as Jayne is a ‘Bat expert’ we saw plenty of them flying around us as we noted the many tiled roofs that would give them good shelter. We also noted quiet a few fish in the water but couldn’t identify them.

Off to bed for an early start as the viewing site was around a miles walk and despite the weather prospects I still had to be at the viewing site, the Water Theatre to help advise people and hopefully see the eclipse. Many of the images shown here of Wuzhen were taken whilst I, Rob England (the Omega Rep), Bill and Jessica, our Chinese reps rushed along to inspect the eclipse viewing site - just as well as there was no time after the eclipse for sightseeing! Some of the images have also been kindly leant to me by Jayne.