Reflections on Cultural Identity and Nature Explorations in Zhejiang Province

Tianxianzi

2026-01-14

Left to visit the **Zhejiang ** at Zhi Jiang. From going out of university, studying abroad, going overseas, or staying in the country, I’ve visited many museums of small and large sizes both domestically and internationally. Whether traveling for tourism or attending meetings, it’s always necessary to pay a visit to a local museum wherever you go in China. After nearly ten years of returning to the newly built Zhi Jiang , seeing the “Ten thousand-year history” displayed on the exhibition windows in the hallway, and encountering many familiar places, names, objects, and materials from history, I was suddenly realizing for the first time about the concept of cultural identification. I was born here, I grew up here, and everything around me is related to me. Although there are not many exhibits, it doesn’t matter. Unlike before when entering a new place, you have to memorize and digest everything at once in this place; all you need to do is wander around aimlessly for a while, look for something new that interests you, and spend as much time as needed on one exhibit.

However, every time I visit the historical exhibition area, there’s an uncertain feeling arising in my heart. I realize that we are all just simple processes in history. All individual anxieties and fears come out of nowhere; although we have tried to imitate historical aspects from various aspects of our daily lives, what we ultimately present is only a rough outline of history with vaguely defined people. The people we admire or love will be swept into the dust heaps of history, and they won’t remember them in this world after their death.

Even though there’s a warning, I checked the weather outside and saw that it wasn’t completely flooded yet. So I decided to go up the mountain. Originally planning to go from **Yueqing ** to True Trace Yin yuan, but when I got to Yueqing , it was too late already, and entering Yueqing felt less optimistic because water had started pooling on the ground, with the stream bed at Xin Xich being very high, covering the path. Trying to climb uphill through bamboo forest, my shoes were completely flooded; couldn’t do anything but lie down and pretend nothing happened while walking through the water. Though the water was quite high, the rain wasn’t that bad, so I could still use an umbrella, but when I got to the highest pavilion in the hall, it felt somewhat hot and humid with some mosquitoes. There was no sense of floating around like one might expect in the rain; instead, it felt a bit unwieldy.

I met several people on the way up, but they made me feel annoyed because in an ideal rain -filled landscape world, people shouldn’t be there at all. So I sped past them to catch up and ended up feeling more and swarmed by mosquitoes as well. I thought that being immersed in rain and culture was necessary for my understanding of China’s landscapes, but returning from this trip, seeing the shoes on my feet completely soaked through, it felt like no matter what I did, everything had already happened.

I walked slowly back down the mountainside after getting back to the car. On the way, I saw a couple holding their shoes in water as they walked on and commented on how refreshing it was to have the shoes dry again. The rain was still light, so I didn’t mind carrying an umbrella along. When I got to the base of the mountain, I noticed that not everyone returned to their vehicles; some people were still there but seemed to be having a good time. This made me happy.

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After getting back to the car and grabbing my stuff, I decided to go visit **Mai **. After raining, the tea plantations looked cleaner, and from afar, you could see buses passing through them on the road. I really like how the landscape of Hangzhou integrates so well with life in the city; it’s a place where you can live there or just experience its landscapes. Since I’ve spent so much time here, some places have become part of my life experiences.

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After dinner with a friend, things got more serious. I feel that being so active before was fun and carefree, but now as an urban , work has become more tiring, marriage is near, and responsibilities are heavy; when you talk about it, there’s no energy left to spare. It feels a bit sad.

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After finishing dinner, my friend doesn’t want to drink alcohol at all and wants to go back early, so I took a taxi to visit a bar. Walking along Qianjiang was somewhat scary in the rain, but when the storm hit suddenly, I had to call a cab to get to BinJiaqiao’s bar. It’s different from the bars on Zhongshun Road that we visited earlier; here there are not as many bars concentrated.

The first place I went was QingHo Hill, which sells wine on the ground floor and liquor on the second floor, so they must be doing a good job in terms of wine quality. I ordered two cups: one was a special cocktail based on rum (Vulanic), and the other was their signature drink called “QingHo.” The former wasn’t very good, but it had an excellent level; the latter was very good indeed. It’s not often that you can taste something as well as you did this, so I think this is a good place to come.

I sat at the bar counter and talked casually with the bartender about some trivial things. He seemed to know almost everything about me. It feels like every barperson knows you by heart regardless of how little they talk to you.

After that, I tried three different kinds of ales from Qianjiang Century Park’s craft beer section; none of them were my cup, so I left quickly after trying.

In fact, I had intended to just take the taxi back early and go straight home. But since it wasn’t raining too bad in the city center, going out for a while wasn’t that bad either. When I reached Qianjiang at night, there were almost no one else on the street, so I could enjoy my own company. Walking along the bank, I saw some ancient people sitting by the Qianjiang edge and reading or writing notes. I walked over to them and tried to read what they wrote aloud. It turned out that two of their poems written in the year 1036 were among the best ones I’ve ever read. Now that I think about it, I really don’t want to go back.

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After returning from this trip, I took a taxi home. When I got to my hotel in Qianjiang , it felt like I was in a different world compared to being back at Zhi Jiang. The contrast between the city and the countryside here is so great that you can’t help but feel a sense of separation.

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