Let your words speak volumes…
In the Ming Dynasty, the famous traveler Xu Xiake promoted Hangzhou through his well-known book, “Xu Xiake’s Travel Notes”; and in the Yuan Dynasty, the famous backpacker Marco Polo made Hangzhou rise to fame through his remark of the “most luxurious city in the world”
Imogen Heap, the English Grammy Award winner, is obsessed with this beautiful city and even travelled here, thousands of miles from the UK, just to write a song. Abbas Kiarostami, the late Iranian director, has visited Hangzhou for four times for the film “Love is in Hangzhou” and during his first visit, he got attracted by "Mantoushan Community" and featured it in his film in details.
As a vigorous and charming city, since ancient times, Hangzhou continues to leave a lasting impression in the world of literature and travel. Now, Hangzhou has become a world-renowned city with breath-taking scenery and brilliant culture, more and more novel words are being produced to describe the beautiful city, such as the ancient cultural capital, the innovative pioneer, the ecological habitat, the oriental modern city of quality and so on.
Hangzhou is abundant in resources, for example, it boasts two world cultural heritages – West Lake and the Grand Canal, and national major innovative forces, such as, Alibaba, Hikvision and so on. Last year, Hangzhou held the G20 summit and in doing so showed the city’s unique charms to the rest of the world. In 2022, Hangzhou will be embraced with another opportunity – the Asian Games.
During the key period between the G20 Summit and the Asian Games, Hangzhou is quickening its pace of urban internationalization and the construction of world cities, and is trying to achieve the change from cross-river to embrace-river development. Consequently, dramatic changes will take place in the form of characteristic features, cultural constructions, ecological environment and so on, which therefore requires a higher urban administration system and the modernization of governance capability.
So, what does such a charming Hangzhou mean to you? We welcome your thoughts and will pass on your meaningful words for the world to see. Co-hosted by several governmental departments, “My Memory about West Lake” international essay activity is being advertised to the entire world. No matter where you are, or what language you use, all you need to do is express your feelings for Hangzhou and submit them in essay form for the world to see.
Time: until September 30th, 2017
Requirements: For native people and foreign friends
1. For content: the essay must be original and focused on the unique charms of Hangzhou
2. For genre: poem and prose
3. For language: Chinese or English
4. For length: single poem: in 50 lines; collection of poem: in 100 lines; prose: in 5000 words
5. Supplementary information: besides the text, writers should also provide their true name, phone number, address, e-mail address, ID number, publishing statement (agreeing to be published in Metropolis Express, Hangzhou Official Website (https://wgly.hangzhou.gov.cn/en/) and the app of “Hangzhou News”)
Submission Ways:
1. Address: “Metropolis Express” Newspaper Office, No.218 Tiyuchang Road, Hangzhou City; addressee: “My Memory about West Lake” team; code: 310003 ( note the submission and leave the name, contacts and other information)
2. E-mail: xihujiyi@163.com (note “West Lake Memory + author name + essay title” in the subject line)
3. Wechat: follow “dskbdskb” and click the “West Lake Soliciting” to submit
Purpose:
1. The essays will be classified and evaluated by professors.
2. The good excerpts will be published in the “Metropolis Express”, Hangzhou Official Website (https://wgly.hangzhou.gov.cn/en/) and the app of “Hangzhou News”.
3. There will be two first prizes, six second prizes, nine third prizes and 20 best prizes provided. First prize will receive a 5000 RMB reward; second prize 2000 RMB; third 1000 RMB; and best prize 500 RMB.
4. Excellent works will be picked out to form a collection –“My memory about West Lake”, which will be translated into both Chinese and English, and the copyright will be owned by the committee.