We left Meijiawu tea plantation for the Song Dynasty Culture Theme Park. We were warned to be mindful with our valuable belongings as this place is always packed with tourists.

We had one important mission there - to catch its live stage performance i.e. The Song Dynasty Show shown only once daily from 7.30 - 8.30pm. This world-class stage performance was rumored to take government a whopping 50 million yuan investment. It takes more than 300 actors and actresses to perform every night and therefore is highly recommended by the Zhejiang Provincial Tourist Bureau!

When we arrived, hundreds of people were already queuing outside the main gate to purchase show ticket. Our tour leader proceeded to collect the pre-booked ticket.

We had more than one hour before the show starts, therefore we had chance to explore the surroundings before going back to our meeting point.

We discovered that this theme park is rather huge. Inside, one can find many street performances, food stalls selling various kinds of exotic food. The centre of attraction was the outdoor playground for kids (and adults too), surrounded by castle-like tall buildings. This is a perfect place for a family, I thought!
Finally, our much-awaited show was about to start! We moved in groups into the packed Songcheng Grand Theatre. Inside the theatre, it was not easy to find a seat because the light was dimmed and we guessed there were more than a thousand seats. We tried to stay close to our tour members for fear of getting lost.

When the show started, many people were seen still unsettled. Some were trying to stand up in order to take the best snap with their cameras (recording was prohibited though!)

Well, a picture tells a thousand words, therefore let my humble pictures do the talking instead!


Here is the Chinese version of Romeo & Juliet. Legend has it that a couple Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai's forbidden love has them committed suicide and transformed them into a pair of butterflies.

The Beautiful West Lake and its Beautiful Tales; can you see the rain water falling from top? At the same time, water was drizzling all over us from top too! Yes, this was indeed a 4D experience. Few spectators were seen opening up their umbrella.

Overall, this stage performance is worth every single dollar paid. Besides the well-choreographed dances, it showcased colourful costumes and excellent stage props and new technology such as laser lights, a very compact one-hour performance.

That night, we retired at our hotel rooms, feeling fully contented although our body was totally drained out. The following day, we shall leave for Shanghai. Deep in my heart, I was feeling heavy leaving this beautiful city of thousands memories.

I look forward to visiting Hangzhou again after the Beijing 2008 Olympics and I plan to spend more days and explore this city in more details!

What about you? Follow the road of Marco Polo and behold for yourself!

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Comments (3)

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written by Kevin Roberts , December 07, 2010

HI
I am looking for a few pix of the Impression West Lake.I was blown-away but took no Pix' The opening scene was breataking. It just got better. A lot like our from Beijing last month. I find this show herd to describe.
Could you direct me to the Acrobatic Show where they had 7 in the sphere at once.
Thanks
Kevin
Australia...Sydney's northern beaches

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written by Joe , September 16, 2011

I'm sorry I would like to strongly scold the author for her complete lack of culture and terrible advice. I've been in Shanghai for about a week with our girlfriend, and we just got back from a daylong trip to Hangzhou, which, although super fun because the weather was nice and we rented cheap bikes from the city (they're EVERYWHERE), it was a total drain on my wallet, and in the end we both agreed the stage performance was completely not worth it for the price paid.

"Overall, this stage performance is worth every single dollar paid."

I have to take tremendous issue with this. At a cost of RMB260 (about US$40), when everything was said and done my girlfriend spent about US$100 for the excursion. I would say it would be worth every single dollar, if each dollar was cut in three and two-thirds were given back to me in usable form.

As with everything else in China, technique and skill is horrible. It's what happens when you have a Communist regime that relies on connections rather than free market capitalism. It's why the Shanghai high speed rail has crashed and killed more people within weeks of it opening than the Japanese rails in their many years of existence -- and the government covers up the news of course.

When you go to a performance of this calibre, at this price, at this price IN CHINA, it better be f***ing good. However, other than the incredible stage technology, the actual performances were nothing short of bleh. Half of the show was girls walking slowly and moving their arms, which I enjoy greatly if I'm not paying top dollar. I can go to a nightclub and see the same thing. I could probably train someone to do 50% of what was done on stage if I had enough time and enough opportunity to re-watch it, and I have no dancing experience whatsoever.

The movements were out of sync, and they looked like they picked out 90% of the people on stage off the street, said they'd pay them peanuts if they just did X, Y and Z, and that's how they got their performers. *Some* were very good, but their time on stage was a total of no more than 10 minutes (of 1 hour, which is short for this price anyway).

My girlfriend is Chinese, well-educated wealthy family background, but knows I'm tight with $. Before we got it, I was basically like "I won't regret it, let's go see it, we're already here... I just wanna know if these kind of things are worth it for future reference." (They're not).

I don't regret it. Let me save ANYONE the trouble:

DO NOT GO TO THIS IF YOU ARE ON KIND OF BUDGET. ITS A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY -- YOURE PAYING FOR TECHNOLOGY (MACHINES) AND STAGE PROPS PERFORMER SKILL OR TECHNIQUE. THE REASON THAT ITS SO POPULAR IN CHINA, IF YOU NOTICE FROM THE CROWDS, IS THEYRE ALL THE CHINESE EQUIVALENT OF REDNECKS. THEY LOAD PEOPLE UP BY THE TRUCKLOAD IN TOUR GROUPS, AND EVERYONE GETS A CUT. IF YOU SHOW UP YOURSELF, BE PREPARED TO BE SCAMMED, BECAUSE OUTSIDE OF CHINA SKILL AND ARTISTRY OF THE PERFORMERS IS IMPORTANT. HERE, THEYRE PAYED SLAVE WAGES, AND BECAUSE THE PLACE IS ALWAYS PACKED (TOUR GROUPS), THEY HAVE LITERALLY NO INCENTIVE TO INCREASE THE QUALITY OF PERFORMERS.

BOTTOM LINE: IF YOU WANT TO SEE HIGH TECHNOLOGY PROPS OR MACHINES, GO TO THIS "PERFORMANCE," A NASA EXHIBITION, OR THE LATEST 3D MOVIE. IF YOU WANT TO SEE A HIGHLY-SKILLED SHOW WITH MULTIPLE PERFORMERS, AVOID CHINA.

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written by Shirley , September 18, 2011

Hi Joe, Thank you for sharing with us. I am sorry to learn about your experience. This article was written based on the author's personal experience and expectation

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