Day 01(Stay: Xian Heng Hotel 5*)
In the morning, the private van will drive you for an hour to the well-known water town - Shaoxing. Our first stop will be the famous Chinese Calligraphy Theme Park – Lanting Pavilion where you can visit one of the most famous Chinese calligrapher – Wangxizhi’s handwriting. Shen Garden is another place worth visiting where there is a beautiful love story about the famous Chinese poet in South Song Dynasty- Lu You. A lunch will be advised to have in a very stylish local restaurant with private show of Shaoxing Drama, well known as Chinese Yue Opera. Chinese Yue Opera is considered to be the most tender and beautiful traditional Chinese opera.
After lunch, we must be interested in taking a short trip by local tricycle in the town. In China, we can not see the tricycles as a traffic tool any more. But in the small town like Shaoxing, it is very easy to come across the tricycles driven by local man with a terai hat. In Shaoxing, we also can not miss the first Chinese Crossroad- Ba Zi Bridge (Ba Zi in Chinese means the character eight "八"). The bridge is so named because of the shaped like is just like Ba Zi. You can take a walk at the crossroad over the river and imagine how important this bridge to the local people.
At night, after dinner, we will take a night cruise in Ring River of the city. you will sit in the ancient style boat and enjoy the beautiful night scenery of this small ancient town.
Day 02
Today we will visit the hometown of famous ancient beauty called Xishi in Zhuji Town, where you may understand why the beautiful girl could be born there. In ther afternoon, our private car will send you back to Hangzhou.
Notes
Yue opera - also called the Shaoxing opera - is a newcomer among the Chinese local operas. It was originated in the beginning of the 1900s near Shanghai in a place called Shaoxing from local musical plays, which used only the ban-clapper in accompaniment of the play. The popularity of this art form began to grow in 1916, when it was performed in Shanghai to large audiences of Shaoxing origin.
Gradually, first string instruments and later other instruments were added to the orchestra, although the music was still based on the same Shaoxing melodies. The performances were, in fact, very successful.
In 1923, the training of female actors for this art form was set up. Since 1928, the Shaoxing opera troupes, consisting of solely female actors, began their performances in Shanghai. In a few years, females impersonating males had become the most important feature of this opera form, and at the same time the yue opera became well known all over China. In the Qing dyn