[Malaysia] Tan Yi Xuan, Zhejiang University

The life of a city is like a person’s life, with deep or shallow footprints on the road outlined by time. With the baptism of history and the decoration of modern civilization, the style of a city is like a lively person, arranged and combined like a kaleidoscope of diverse styles from different perspectives of people. Located south of the Yangtze River, Hangzhou is a city that I travelled thousands of miles to reach. It has shown me about her beauty across the past and the present in each season that we spent together.

When you come to Hangzhou, you can’t help but come to visit the West Lake; When you come to the West Lake, Hangzhou becomes a graceful woman, putting up an umbrella. Before my school year started, my friends and I went to the West Lake. I remember that day, we saw people walking hurriedly on the Broken Bridge from a distance on Beishan Street. Walking all the way down the bridge, I saw the scenery looming in the crowd. We walked along the lakeside, the lake reflected the mountains, and a few boats and mandarin ducks occasionally rowed on the flooded water, causing ripples, adding a little vividness to the artistic conception of this ink painting. As far as the eyes can see, this scene made me understand poet Su Shi’s “The shimmering water and clear sky are beautiful,” and I realized poet Bai Juyi’s “On half my heart this lake holds an alluring sway.” As if through a long history, I was immersed in the artistic conception of poetry and songs, and was fascinated by the charm of the ancient literati and writers.

Perhaps lacking leisure and elegant sentiment like the ancients, we were tired of the picturesque scenery of the south of the Yangtze River. Just as my companions and I were about to go home, I caught a glimpse of a figure sitting on a bench by the West Lake – the afternoon sun fell on her through the crevices in the leaves, which amazed me with the feeling that life is really calm and tranquil. I suddenly understood why West Lake was so popular to people: The charm of the lake was that any corner of the lake could become your own space where you could stop, admire and even linger. In the atmosphere of the unity of nature and man, the hustle and bustle of life disappears, the rhythm of time quietly slows down, and at this moment we are in harmony with the landscape, and the soul resonates with nature. Su Shi’s “The shimmering water and clear sky are beautiful” is no longer a distant picture scroll thousands of years ago, but a cultural link that connects you and me through the shore of the West Lake. The ever-bright eyes of this bustling city have always provided a resting place for people on the go in the rolling wheel of history.

When I was filled with the joy of finding my dreaming south of Yangtze, Hangzhou told me that there were more than just sentiments there. This classical beauty transforms into a lantern from a high-rise building at night, which takes us to the other side of the West Lake. Here, the lakeside lights are shining, and the neon lights are flashing in the direction of a young and new way. I stood at the intersection of Lakeside Pedestrian Street, feeling like I was at the intersection of time and space, seeing the tension of time span, the gorgeous technological innovation in front of me, and the south of Yangtze Wonderland behind me intertwines. Not only being mesmerized by the scenery, visitors are often amazed by the mobile payment and the sharing economy here. Whether it is buying a cup of milk tea on the shore of West Lake or shopping in the lakeside business district, you only need to tap the screen and scan the QR codes to complete the payment. On the road, shared bicycles are like flowing notes, gently resounding in the streets and alleys. The neatly arranged shared bicycles have become a unique scenery, showing the urban spirit of “green travel” in Hangzhou to people from all walks of life. Hangzhou has allowed the city to grow flourishingly while protecting the nature. Hangzhou knows that no one will refuse a city that is eternally young, meanwhile she also knows that the hustle and bustle of the world needs the tranquility of the water town in south of the Yangtze River.

The spatial transformation of the city is actually a reflection of the change of humanistic consciousness. The government has continued to promote the development of the city, while still preserving the natural ecosystem, shaping Hangzhou into a city that is suitable both for bustling and quietness. Culture and relics expert Chen Wenjin once said that the West Lake cultural landscape represents the aesthetic way of Chinese, and Hangzhou connects the cultural accumulation of ancient and modern with natural landscape and reinforced concrete, setting off a collision between Chinese classical and avant-garde technology. In the passage of time, Hangzhou did not stuck in the mist and rain of South of Yangtze. With a refreshed face, the city declared to the world that she is not afraid of the challenges of modernization.