West Lake Drama
Mitchell had the day off and decided to waste it with E and I. E had seen a show that took place on a lake via YouTube and it was showing at a location known as West Lake in Hangzhou. It was a couple hours away via train, so Mitchell bought tickets and we were off to Hangzhou. Kelly had to work, but would join us later in the day for the show. The day went fairly smoothly. Our train arrived early and we decided to walk along the lake to kill time. It was a beautiful setting and people were taking pictures everywhere. For some reason, instead of shooting the beautiful surroundings, some wanted a shot of two white guys walking the path. No one approached us, just took our pic from afar. What is wrong with those people?
We had walked quite a ways along the lake when we figured it would be smart to turn around and return to where we started. We needed to find a place for dinner. We looked at quite a few places, but I noticed one that looked okay and the prices posted weren’t outrageous. Kelly joined us and we sat down for some dinner. I need to stop picking places. The places I have picked so far, both services stunk, badly. We ordered a few dishes and the food was ok, but the mood was soured by the pretentious waitresses. Not as bad as the seafood place, but still not good.
We left and began heading towards the show. After the taxi had dropped us off, we got to our seats. Front row, stage right, solid seats. What you need know about this show, called Impression of West Lake, is that it literally takes place on a lake. So the actors are a good distance away. Everyone had been seated and the show began. I will admit, I thought that this was going to be a concert, but it turned out it was more of a play. No lines were spoken and the music had been pre-recorded and blasted over speakers. The play itself was a little hard to follow for two reasons. It was more of a stylized play. So I believe you had to be familiar with Chinese style of storytelling. The second reason is no one in the crowd would SHUT UP. The crowd kept talking throughout the entire play. I realize that each country is different and the etiquette is unique also, but this drove me up the wall. This wasn’t whispering to one another, this was a full on conversation at what has been referred to as “Chinese Loud”. Not angry, just talking at a very high decibel. After all, how can you have a conversation over loud speakers if you don’t also talk loudly? I could not enjoy the show one bit. Worse, I think I ruined the show for E, and possibly Mitchell and Kelly. I wanted to beg the crowd to shut up, but we were out numbered so I didn’t want to create a scene. I could have handled it better, but the moment just drove me to the edge. I plugged my ears, which helped muffle the crowd, but I could still hear them over the music. I will never go to a play in China again.
The show ended and I thought the drama had ended. We began walking back to our original starting point, with Mitchell bargaining with the taxi drivers to take us to the train station, he’s very good at it. Eventually, we arrived at a bus stop and it took us back to the train station. We got there and the Chinese readers in our group noticed a lack of trains to Shanghai. We stood in line to make sure of this and it was true. No more trains to Shanghai until the morning. E and I fly out to Chongqing at 9am the next morning and Mitch and Kelly had early work. We couldn’t wait. We had encountered people offering a bus ride to Shanghai prior to finding out the news. So we went back to them and took them up on their offer. I’ll admit that this was dangerous, but we had no other option. We sat on the bus for 30 minutes until the bus took off towards Shanghai, supposedly. We were on the highway and had been for about 30 minutes when the bus pulled over to the side of the road. My spidey senses were tingling and I was getting prepped to fight. The engine had cut off in mid-drive and wouldn’t restart. The smokers got off the bus while the driver kept working on it.
A few minutes later, we were told to get off the bus b/c a secondary bus was coming. I was extremely uneasy about this. I thought it was a ploy to get us off the bus and then he drives away. I was ready to follow the bus driver everywhere to ensure he wouldn’t get away easily. Thankfully, a second bus did show up and took us directly to Shanghai. They dropped us off at a location on the opposite side of town. So we had to get a taxi, Mitch did his magic and got a good deal with a guy in an unmarked taxi. Mitch was uneasy about this guy not having a marked taxi at first, but the guy got us there in good time. We arrived around 3am. We had to get up in 3 hours to catch a taxi to get to the airport. Chongqing was our next destination and E’s past life in China would be revealed a little more to me.
We had walked quite a ways along the lake when we figured it would be smart to turn around and return to where we started. We needed to find a place for dinner. We looked at quite a few places, but I noticed one that looked okay and the prices posted weren’t outrageous. Kelly joined us and we sat down for some dinner. I need to stop picking places. The places I have picked so far, both services stunk, badly. We ordered a few dishes and the food was ok, but the mood was soured by the pretentious waitresses. Not as bad as the seafood place, but still not good.
We left and began heading towards the show. After the taxi had dropped us off, we got to our seats. Front row, stage right, solid seats. What you need know about this show, called Impression of West Lake, is that it literally takes place on a lake. So the actors are a good distance away. Everyone had been seated and the show began. I will admit, I thought that this was going to be a concert, but it turned out it was more of a play. No lines were spoken and the music had been pre-recorded and blasted over speakers. The play itself was a little hard to follow for two reasons. It was more of a stylized play. So I believe you had to be familiar with Chinese style of storytelling. The second reason is no one in the crowd would SHUT UP. The crowd kept talking throughout the entire play. I realize that each country is different and the etiquette is unique also, but this drove me up the wall. This wasn’t whispering to one another, this was a full on conversation at what has been referred to as “Chinese Loud”. Not angry, just talking at a very high decibel. After all, how can you have a conversation over loud speakers if you don’t also talk loudly? I could not enjoy the show one bit. Worse, I think I ruined the show for E, and possibly Mitchell and Kelly. I wanted to beg the crowd to shut up, but we were out numbered so I didn’t want to create a scene. I could have handled it better, but the moment just drove me to the edge. I plugged my ears, which helped muffle the crowd, but I could still hear them over the music. I will never go to a play in China again.
The show ended and I thought the drama had ended. We began walking back to our original starting point, with Mitchell bargaining with the taxi drivers to take us to the train station, he’s very good at it. Eventually, we arrived at a bus stop and it took us back to the train station. We got there and the Chinese readers in our group noticed a lack of trains to Shanghai. We stood in line to make sure of this and it was true. No more trains to Shanghai until the morning. E and I fly out to Chongqing at 9am the next morning and Mitch and Kelly had early work. We couldn’t wait. We had encountered people offering a bus ride to Shanghai prior to finding out the news. So we went back to them and took them up on their offer. I’ll admit that this was dangerous, but we had no other option. We sat on the bus for 30 minutes until the bus took off towards Shanghai, supposedly. We were on the highway and had been for about 30 minutes when the bus pulled over to the side of the road. My spidey senses were tingling and I was getting prepped to fight. The engine had cut off in mid-drive and wouldn’t restart. The smokers got off the bus while the driver kept working on it.
A few minutes later, we were told to get off the bus b/c a secondary bus was coming. I was extremely uneasy about this. I thought it was a ploy to get us off the bus and then he drives away. I was ready to follow the bus driver everywhere to ensure he wouldn’t get away easily. Thankfully, a second bus did show up and took us directly to Shanghai. They dropped us off at a location on the opposite side of town. So we had to get a taxi, Mitch did his magic and got a good deal with a guy in an unmarked taxi. Mitch was uneasy about this guy not having a marked taxi at first, but the guy got us there in good time. We arrived around 3am. We had to get up in 3 hours to catch a taxi to get to the airport. Chongqing was our next destination and E’s past life in China would be revealed a little more to me.