Hangzhou, Songcheng Park
In the afternoon we went to Songcheng Park, a popular theme park with a Disneyfied recrecation of a Song Dynasty town. (Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty). As we came along the highway to the park, we passed a strange apartment building. It turned out that one side of the building was resurfaced to form an artificial mountain to serve as a backdrop for the park. In the parking lot are a mix of buildings including a mock White House, some castles, and in the center a Washington Monument covered in Chinese characters. (The sign at the base makes it clear that the reference is to the Washington Monument rather than any other obelisk.)
One of the castles is apparently now being used as a private school; the White House houses the company's offices.
Inside the theme park are streets recreating traditional commercial shops
and street performers (in this case with a trained goat and monkey)
One of the exhibits in the park is an animation of the Song Dynasty scroll painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival." The original, housed in Beijing, is one of the most important artworks of China. The animation is charming computer graphics and I think it probably catches the spirit of the original's depiction of the busy activity in the city.
In one of the buildings, you could get your picture taken in Imperial Robes. Our guide very much wanted one of us to try this, and Marilyn was a good sport.
At another spot in the park the actors enacted a folk-tale of a girl who chooses her husband by throwing a bouquet into the crowd. Much jostling among the audience for the honor, and the actor playing the father then adlibs an interview with the chosen groom, determining his suitability.
But the highpoint of the visit was a spectacular production in the main theater: "Romance of the Song" -- extravagant costumes, singing, dancing, special effects (including enough water falling on the stage to produce a Gotterdammerung, never mind a "Singing in the Rain.")