Hangzhou Xixi Wetland Park China Travel Guide

Xixi Innovation Industrial Park:
It is one of Hangzhou’s Top 10 Innovation Industrial Parks. Located at Mulberry Ripple Zone of Xixi National Wetland Park, the park is next to Commercial Housing Zone of Jiang Village, Yellow Dragon Business Circle, Hangzhou University City, West Lake Technological and Economic Park, and Zhejiang University Technological Park. It has convenient traffic, abundant talents and obvious advantage in location.
The park covers an area of 0.95 square kilometers and has 59 buildings, with building area of 26000 square meters and investment of nearly RMB 0.14 billion Yuan.
According to preserved building remains from different periods, the Innovation Industrial Park is repaired and newly built according to the standard of “ecological, functional, and diversified”. It is a primitive manor for innovative designs and arts with characteristics of Xixi. The Innovation Park forms a space development pattern of “One Park With Two Areas”. The east area is the base for headquarter of innovative enterprises, while the west area is for workrooms of celebrities and original organizations.
Depending on abundant natural landscapes, deep cultural accumulation and outstanding talent resources in the surrounding, the Innovation Industrial Park is mainly engaged in development of film and television industry, and literature and arts industry. It gradually attracts many first-class talents, celebrities and artists, which makes the park an local influential origin of innovation in arts, the “Plateau of Talents” and “Plateau of Arts” in the field of cultural innovation in China, a national innovation industrial model park, and the leader and the model of ecological cultural innovation industrial parks within the country.

Folkways and Custom – Dragon Boat of Jiang Village:
On the day of Dragon Boat Festival, the men in village will return home no matter how busy or how distant they are. Rowing dragon boats is to pray to the Dragon King for favorable weather and flourishing population of each family. It is the most significant event in Xixi Village. At the same time, it is also the only day in the year that all men in the village gather together. Located at Xixi Wetland, Jiang Village has intersected river ports and densely covered water networks. Every time when summer comes, it suffers from invasion of flash floods coming from the west. Floods in Xixi have occurred since the ancient times. The custom of worshiping Dragon King in summer, respectfully inviting it onto boat to ramble on river ports and praying for no more floods has also existed since the ancient times. In the Ming Dynasty, a minster who retired and return back to Wuchang Village in Xixi Noticed that the floods at hometown did not leave, thus led the local people to construct the Xixi Dyke, dredge Yanshan River and Yuhang Dyke River, and open Xianlin Port, Hemu Port, Wuchang Port, Yulin Port and Zijin Port. The floods no longer existed and the folks spontaneously started to invite the Dragon King, worship the Dragon King, have Dragon Boat wine and thank to the Dragon King in their own village every year on 1st May according to the lunar calender. On the day of Dragon Boat Festival, all large and small dragon boats from various villages in Xixi gather at Deep Pool Mouth Village of Jiang Village to have dragon boat competition. In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong came down to the south of the Yangtze River, saw the scene of rowing dragon boats like going to market in Jiang Village and bestowed the title of “Distinguished Gathering of Dragon Boats” upon Jiang Village. Since then, the title of “Distinguished Gathering of Dragon Boat” of Jiang Village is continued to be used till today. In hundreds of years from the Ming Dynasty to today, rowing dragon boats at Dragon Boat Festival never stops in Jiang Village. Even during the ten-year Cultural Revolution, people from different villages still secretly carried the dragon boat into water on the day of Dragon Boat Festival, invited the Dragon King onto boat and rowed one round in the river of their own villages. There are three types of Dragon Boat in Jiang Village,Which are full-loaded boat, half-loaded boat and barebacked boat. The head of dragon boat on duty in turns annually according to family units in natural village is in charge of gathering and managing all matters for rowing dragon boats during the Dragon Boat Festival. Taking over after rowing dragon boats and thanking to the Dragon King the that year, he invites the Dragon King back home, preserves it in the high and bright room in the house, and passes it to the next head of dragon boat after rowing dragon boats and thanking to the Dragon King at the Dragon Boat Festival in the coming year.

By Shane Lee:

Copyright owner: Travel2ChinaInfo Dot COM . You can find more information about china travel, airlines, cheap flights, non-stop flights, direct flights from our web site. (This article written on 04/19/2011).

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