Timeless tales of love, sacrifice, and devotion
Love stories that have survived dynasties, wars, and centuries — from a snake spirit who crossed a thousand years for love to a poem that predates Romeo and Juliet by 1,200 years.
Two love stories that have captivated China for centuries — one carved into the landscape of Hangzhou's West Lake, the other preserved in a poem that has outlived empires.
Rain in Hangzhou comes without warning. Raindrops patter onto West Lake as Leifeng Pagoda fades to a hazy silhouette. A thousand years ago, also on a rainy day at this bridge, a young man handed an umbrella to a woman in white. So began China's most romantic mythological love story — the tale of a snake spirit who crossed a millennium for love.
"Her slender steps were exquisitely unmatched in all the world." During the Eastern Han Dynasty, a young woman sat before her loom in Anhui — skilled in silk, poetry, and music. Then came a letter of divorce. This 1,700-character poem has survived 1,800 years, telling a love story 1,200 years older than Romeo and Juliet. And today, you can cycle through the Anhui countryside to the place where it all happened.
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