Hangzhou - 9th Sept 2010 (Day 2 Part 2 )

After West Lake, we went to Yan'an Rd for some shopping. Window shopping mostly, but along the way we came across a shop that was holding a sale. From afar, it looked like the shop was selling the Crocodile brand of apparel. But on closer inspection it was spelt CLIO CODDLE. Hahahaha!

The quality wasn't too bad though. Allan got himself a pair of slacks, Soo a wallet for her husband & I got a leather belt for Dad & a pair of nice comfy leather sandals for Mum (she loves sandals & shoes!).

We got caught in a brief shower and took shelter in a shop selling fashion shoes. Would have ended up buying a pair of shoes, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how one looks at it...grin..) they didn't have my size in stock.

We ended our shopping early and took a taxi back to the hotel for a rest and also for Soo to do some last minute packing as she was departing Hangzhou on a late night flight tonight. Allan & I had purchased tickets for the Impressions of West Lake show by Zhang Yi Mou. Friends told us not to miss this one, so while we were at West Lake we bought tickets for the second performance at 9pm. Tickets were RMB200 a piece.

At 7pm, we still had an hour before Soo takes the taxi to the airport. She said she'd like to go back to the square where we found the line dancers last night & hopefully that they would be dancing tonight as well.

We headed there & yes, they were there, dancing! Soo & I joined in without much hesitation (although we did stay a little ways from the last line of the dancers). They were doing a basic cha-cha routine, just one wall, so it was pretty easy to follow. We did only one dance as the next song didn't quite appeal to us and also because Soo wanted to move on to the shops at He Fang Jie for one final browse.

Soo & I line dancing at the square

Just the silhoutte of Soo & I :)

At He Fang Jie, we said our goodbyes & parted ways with Soo. Allan & I went on to get our dinner...at McDonald's...before taking a taxi to West Lake.

At West Lake, while mingling with the crowd that had gathered to wait for the 1st show to end, we came across 2 friends from the WOW event who had joined the post event tour. What a coincidence! We knew that the group would be in Hangzhou on this date but to actually meet up, what are the chances of that! (They or we, could just as easily have decided to go for the earlier show & would not have bumped into each other).

With Nancy & Cameron

When I finally met up with the rest of the group, you can just imagine the look of surprise on their faces....lol. I was glad to see my friends again. It felt nice to be watching the show together although we weren't seated at the same area with the group.

The show was awesome. Lovely visuals created by the play of lights, great costumes, hauntingly moving music...beautiful! And all these were done on the lake itself. A stage was built just 3cm below the water surface for the actors and dancers to perform on.

The story is loosely based on the Legend of the White Snake. At the beginning, they had a projector introducing the storyline and the various acts/scenes (there were 5 in all as I recall) but everything was in chinese. I got the impression that it was 'boy meets girl', 'boy courts girl', boy marries girl then looses girl on the wedding night' (tsk tsk....just his luck), but can't quite figure out if it was a happy ending or not. Didn't sound like it though.... the music sounded sad throughout.

The scholar who meets the girl

Dancers (this is the only part of the stage that's above water)

Scholar looses his bride on their wedding night

Bride (in red) with her captors

(who seem to be playing with water rather than keeping an eye on her.....LOL!)

They meet but separate again soon after

Bride says her final farewell (sob sob!)

After the show, we caught a cab back to the hotel, happy to have spent a fruitful day drinking in the sights of West Lake, doing some shopping & ending it all with a lovely show.