Team Building 2013 - Wuzhen

It is mandatory for companies to have an annual team building event for its employees.  We allocate a portion of our annual budget to this offsite, overnight event.  This year about 200 of us headed on a 2 hour bus ride to Wuzhen.  Wuzhen is considered a 'water town' since its buildings are built alongside canals to assist in transporting people and goods throughout.  

Token toll booth heading into the area.

The buses stopped for lunch about 15 minutes from the hotel.  I'm not really sure why we didn't eat at the hotel but as with many things, you just don't ask since there probably isn't a logical answer.

Group #9 organizing for the team photo.

During lunch we were organized into our groups for the afternoon's team-building activity.  The event was a treasure hunt through the water town area.  The teams each had 10 people with one member being a foreigner that would have the pleasure of eating the local food (e.g. stinky tofu).  It ended up being a great way to tour the city.  Albeit a little fast for some who wanted to soak up the sights.  

A couple of my work team members.  

Walking out to the 'town' area.

Getting our bearings.

Every tourist location has to have a pagoda.

The attraction of Wuzhen is the water town concept and it being old.  It was about 100 years old - not really old like we would think but they thought it was.

Small streets made for walking only.

This was a ricey cake thing.  It wasn't too bad.

Lots of nice bridges over the canals.  Also many couples on boats
getting toured around the city.

Map of Wuzhen.

One of the scavenger hunt findings.  An old
'British' like mailbox.

Many pictures being taken with the nice walls and scenes.

Photo opportunity.

Restaurants and bars along the canal.

Night life was quite but the building were beautifully lit.

After a night of dinner and drinks we had a really bad breakfast and heading to Nanbei Hu.  Nan = North, Bei = South, Hu = Lake.  But first we did some cherry tomato picking and eating.  It was an interesting event  where we were given a bucket and then told to go pick tomatoes.  They were safe to eat, so we were told, and they were sooo sweet and yummy.

Tomato and other veggie greenhouses.

Simon about to eat one.  Not the red one!!

Ziad through the vines.

Cherry tomatoes and pickle sized cucumbers.

 Then we had lunch near the lake and given about an hour to tour.  So many of us rented a power boat for $5 each and had a 30 minute ride around.

Zong Zong, John and me.

Some locals enjoying some water sports.

Another group of colleagues enjoying a boat ride.