Enduring memories of Hangzhou

Today, Saturday June 23rd, we went to West Lake (西湖) in Hangzhou (杭州).

After we took a cruise, ate dinner and explored, we went to see a water show. The water show was absolutely insane. It started out with a musician dressed in classical Chinese clothing; she was playing a pipa. The platform below her glided across the water while the sounds of music filled the air. Dancers, maybe hundreds of them, moved gracefully with the music.
There were many more shows like this one, each just as spectacular as the last. I heard Beethoven and saw Swan Lake. Behind these performances, cultural sites were lit up in an abundance of colors. The night sky was filled with indescribable beauty. My eyes were mesmerized in the sight.

The show told many different traditional Chinese folklore stories through the colorful water show. Although there was Chinese opera singing that we couldn’t quite understand, but the dancing expressed the whole story. One of the stories told was “梁山伯与祝英台”, also known as “The Butterfly Story”. Telling the love story of a girl and a boy who met at school. At the time girls were not allowed to go to school, so the girl dressed up as a boy to go to school. They started to become best friends, as the girl slowly falls in love with the boy he has no idea she even is a girl. It becomes a whirlwind love  story that ends in them both becoming butterflies. This was just one of the beautifully demonstrated stories at the water show in 杭州.

Mia Bird （Pim Arts high school, Eden Prairie, Minnesota）
Megan Ly（Lowell High School, San Francisco, California）