Chapter from the book "23 Reasons to Fall in Love with Hangzhou", written by Natasa Vujicic
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Looking out the window of our apartment above the Qiantang River a few days after we moved to Hangzhou, I noticed waves coming upstream. Or at least I thought it was upstream; in reality I had no idea. I asked my husband, who noticed the same, but also had no idea. He asked a colleague of his who calmly explained that, yes, those are the waves coming upstream, and left it at that. I joked with friends from back home that everything in China is different than in the rest of the world. Even rivers flow backward.
A few weeks later, during a holiday in Sanya, while browsing through my WeChat newsfeed, I read an article titled “Qiantang Silver Dragon”. As you might guess, I was dizzy with excitement. I found out that the small waves I had seen in previous weeks were the precursor to the largest tidal bore in the world, locally known as the Silver Dragon. I dug up all that was possible to find out about tidal bores. I learned that it can reach 9 meters in height and 40 kilometers an hour in speed. I reached the end of the internet; I bored my poor husband to death. It was all I spoke about until the end of the holiday. By the time we made it back to Hangzhou, the wave was no longer at its highest (luckily, because I would have probably drowned in it).
Seeing me heartbroken, my husband found an old video about the Silver Dragon and played it for me one evening. I don’t remember much about it, except that it was filmed decades ago. In the movie, our part of the river was barely recognizable. One could see the Six Harmonies Pagoda (六和塔) surrounded by hills, and on the other side – where now is the super-modern Binjiang District - was literally nothing except some trees. The main character was a surfer from the UK. In one of the interviews, after numerous failed attempts to stay on top of the wave, he said, “Maybe it is magical and it cannot be ridden; maybe it is the Silver Dragon.” By the end of the movie, the surfer still hasn’t managed to ride the wave, just as he had predicted.
I loved this ending. To be honest, I was hoping that no one ever got to ride it. Something that powerful should stayed wrapped in mystery, and only be admired from afar. Later, I learned that many people succeeded where the surfer from the old movie didn’t. However, it was not easy for any of them. If you listen to the interviews with some of the world’s most daring surfers, you will understand why this wave is considered the most dangerous in the world.
The best time to see the wave is the eighteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar (remember the story about the God of Tides?). The best place to see it is in Yangong town in Haining (海宁市盐宫镇), 45 kilometers from Hangzhou. Whichever day or place you choose, once you hear the roar of the wave, you will not forget it for the rest of your life.
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