Song Dynasty Town

None of the photos in this page were taken by me, I downloaded them from: 宋城演艺_杭州宋城旅游区【官网】, 去哪儿攻略 and 杭州宋城街拍.

Hangzhou Song Dynasty Town (宋城), is the first and largest Song Dynasty culture theme park in China, opened in 1996. It is built to resemble the city during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 AD). At that time, Hangzhou was the capital of the country. It was a flourishing city ruled by patrons of art and literature. The city became the center of Buddhism, with numerous Buddhist temples built all around today's West Lake (西湖区) and Shangcheng (上城区) district. Population was growing and economy was thriving.

Song Dynasty Town and its pavilions, lanterns, stone bridges, streets lined with traditional crafts and souvenir shops will make you travel back in time. The amusement park much more to offer: an artificial mountain, temple, countless food stalls, as well some hi-tech entertainment. One of the tourist favorites is the horror house. There a separate area of the park for young children. There is also an option to dress up in typical Song-style robes take a walk or arrange a photoshoot.

The Song Dynasty Town is an interesting combination of old tales, traditional architecture, modern visual effects, numerous activities and lots of food. It is tremendously popular in China and can be quite crowded but is well worth half a day of your holiday. Their slogan is: “Give us a day, we will give you a thousand years”. I would say it is quite accurate.

However, none of these activities can be compared to what made this place so famous - the “Romance of Song Dynasty “show. It is one of the world's most visited shows (yes you read that right), seen by 100 million people (according to their official website). You may not have heard of it, but it has been seem by more people than „O“ from Las Vegas and „Moulin Rouge“ from Paris. This magnificent show is a musical, dancing and acrobatics performance which narrates Hangzhou legends combining them with high-tech visual and audio techniques. If I have to use the term it is "not to be missed".