Walking through the streets and lanes of Hangzhou, people will get the poetic images of Hangzhou life in all kinds of sounds existing in the city, promising people a leisurely time.
Following the “Liangzhu Culture Interactive Comics” activity, Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, TV and Tourism has recently launched the second activity “Hangzhou Moments That Belong to You”, inviting the professional recorder of nature, Sheng Gu (声谷) to jointly produce the “Hangzhou Whisper” white noise playlist, so as to capture the healing sound of Hangzhou and convey the rhythm of the city.
Acoustically, white noise features a uniform energy distribution in each frequency band. Through constant energy frequency and soothing tone of the sound, it can make people feel relaxed and joyful. White noise is very similar to the sounds that a fetus hears in the mother’s body. Many modern urbanites choose to listen to white noise for better sleep before going to bed.
This time, the activity has invited the famous recorder of nature, Sheng Gu to join. “Sheng Gu” literally means “sounds in the valley”, implying his aim to use sounds to give people the power to relax. The nature sound album made by him has been played over 80 million times on the Internet, healing hundreds of thousands of people’s souls. As a millennial, Sheng Gu has lived in Hangzhou for ten years. He has used his ears to feel this city and now he uses sounds to tell the story of the city.
The “Hangzhou Whisper” playlist consists of three episodes, breaking the traditional mode of white noise playlist featuring only one kind of sound. The playlist switches from the early morning to late night, from ancient charm to modern fashion, and from nature to people’s daily life, creating a sound tour and magnifying the sense of space to enable people all over the world to feel Hangzhou closely.
Live in the Moment
“Live in the Moment” uses sounds to convey feelings. Sounds like bicycle rings in small alleys, vendors’ hawking in the vegetable market of Longjing Village (龙井村), the sound of Daomaoxiang Elementary School students reading loudly, the sound of subway station announcements on the way to work, people eating in Kuiyuan Restaurant (奎元馆), and farmers picking tea leaves and working in Longjing Tea Garden, recording Hangzhou people’s happy life. “Common life and things in the worldly world are the most soothing to immortals.” Listeners unconsciously are enveloped by these common life elements, and joy emerges in their hearts.
In your leisure time, take a walk around the West Lake, listen to Yueju Opera in Huanglong Cave (黄龙洞) and even get on the stage to learn some moves... You will feel leisurely and contented.
Into the Nature
“Into the Nature” begins with the pit-a-pat of a Hangzhou spring rain and the gurgle of Nine Creeks and Eighteen Gullies (九溪十八涧), instantly positioning people in the countryside of Hangzhou during springtime, which is enveloped by dense moist and warm air.
The rain stops gradually, and the chirping of birds and insects from Longing Village indicates the vitality after everything comes back to life.
While the rustle of the spring silkworm eating mulberry leaves in Qiandao Lake Mulberry Garden seems to have composed a song from one’s distant childhood, giving people a sense of carefree life.
Away from Hustles
“Away from Hustles” captures the Zen in the urban world, using Guqin and Tea to guide a pure and transparent dialogue between hearts. In the early morning, the provincial representative inheritor of West Lake Longjing Green Tea making skills, Fan Shenghua (樊生华) gives a concert of tea leaves featuring the flowing style of him frying tea leaves, the sound of water being poured into cups, the sound of tea leaves rolling in the water and the sound of tea vessels colliding with each other. Hearing it, people will feel as if they have smelled the refreshing and sweet fragrance of tea, and have experienced and understood Chinese tea culture.
In the afternoon, in the West Lake Guqin Club (西湖琴社), the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage, Zhejiang School of Guqin, Xu Junyue (徐君跃), leads people into an ethereal world through a piece of Guqin music “Xiaoxiang Water and Cloud (潇湘水云)”, echoing with the hearts of listeners, who then reach a state of “nature and mankind becoming one”. The tranquil and long-lasting tone was passed down to the present from the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), accumulating mankind’s hundreds of thousands of years’ fantasies of and yearning for “paradise on earth”.
The clear and melodious evening bell ring in Nanping Mountain resonates with heaven and earth.
The “Hangzhou Whisper” white noise playlist has already been simultaneously released on the overseas music streaming platform Spotify and YouTube. Hangzhou sincerely invites you to put on the earphones to feel the story of the city.