Reflections on the Canal

Reflections on the Canal — Shao Xing, China

It was one of the last mornings of the tour. The parenthesis, as I'd come to think of it, was beginning to close.

My colleagues had discovered a hidden residential quarter the evening before — the kind of place that doesn't appear in guidebooks. Round entrances leading to inner courtyards. Red lanterns going up for Chinese New Year. Fish drying under the rafters. Boats drifting on ancient canals.

I was told to turn left outside the hotel, walk ten minutes, and I couldn't miss it. Which is, of course, exactly the kind of direction I usually do miss. Not that morning.

The quarter was just waking up as I arrived, camera in hand — my wife having specifically asked me to remember to shoot in colour this time. People were clearing their throats, eating their rice for breakfast, mopeds carrying their passengers gently to work. The canals reflected the old white walls and tiled rooftops in the still morning water.

It was authentic China. Not the gleaming towers of Shenzhen. The China that has existed for centuries and quietly continues to exist, unhurried and completely itself.

I didn't want to leave.

Shot on Fujifilm X100F — Shao Xing, China, January 2025