32 degrees and the heat is soaked up by the stone roads and stone houses, and ultimately our bodies. It’s sweaty Shaoxing. We head to 八字桥 (Character Eight Bridge), because it looks like the character ‘Eight’ (八).

Nearby is the St. Joseph’s Church (八字桥圣若瑟堂), built in 1871 but today mostly used for photos & basketball.

Despite my reluctance to go to any 5A or 4A attractions, Eva really wants to visit 三味书屋 (Three-Taste Book Room). Nearly all Chinese people learned about this in primary school; the famous school of the writer Luxun (鲁迅).

Of course, all photos are lies. It’s actually like this.

The place is packed. You actually need a reservation (which we don’t have and of course all slots are booked), but we just queue and get through the gates by saying “Yeah our group is already inside, there they are!”