“The Legend of the White Snake” is a greatest folklore in China. Because of the true love between Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian, Hangzhou has been portrayed as the “Romatic City” or “City of Love” of China plus world heritage status of the scenic site West lake which adds more romance to the city. Every winter i visit Hangzhou once just to experience the woodland birds. This has become much more like a ritual, With my trip to India last year in the winter, i made an early visit to Hangzhou right after Christmas. The new subway system has made life little easy, road transport in Hangzhou was a nightmare in the past and still does.

As i had two days in Hangzhou, i wanted to see the “Live performancë” of “The Legend of the White Snake” at the “Song Dynasty Tourism Village” and the other day at Hangzhou Botanical Garden. The show was remarkably good portraying the legend of the White Snake and the fall of the Song dynasty.

Back in the Botanical Garden, i was given a warm welcome by 4 “Fork-tailed Sunbirds“, a bit hard bird to find in usual case but was a sweet surprise. The initial success slowly faded away as it became increasingly hard to find other birds as the Botanical Garden was not fully teeming with varieties. “Tristram’s Bunting’s”  were as usual found every undergrowth, leaf litter. I was also glad to pick up a “Speckled Piculet“.

I was still looking for a breakthrough of the day and i saw some huge mud barrels with water and i thought this is it. I hide myself behind a tree and waited for some action to begin. The show slowly started with dozens of “Himalayan Black Bulbuls” and “Yellow-bellied Tits” came for a drink.

Himalayan Black Bulbul Himalayan Black Bulbul Himalayan Black Bulbul Himalayan Black Bulbul

Now, it’s time for the belly dancers,

Yellow-bellied Tit Yellow-bellied Tit

Hangzhou is a great place for a travel(I don’t know how to put travel these days without birding). For a day’s birding, Hangzhou Botanical Garden is fantastic with all the hot tourist spots are very close by. Plus some great restaurants serving the authentic Hangzhou food are located right next to the west lake. Even though, the city thrives on the tourist revenue, not sure how they would like to burn the money on to lure more tourists. The following pic, shows how well the mountain has been lit up.

Hangzhou

Species list :

Speckled Piculet
Red-billed Blue-Magpie
Gray Treepie
Yellow-bellied Tit
Collared Finchbill
Black Bulbul
Mountain Bulbul
Vinous-throated Parrotbill
Oriental Magpie-Robin
Red-flanked Bluetail
Fork-tailed Sunbird
White Wagtail
Tristram’s Bunting
Yellow-throated Bunting
Eurasian Siskin