A lake brimming with culture

White whales dance at the daily shows at Hangzhou Polar Ocean Park. [Photo by Xu Lin/China Daily]

The museum is next to Hangzhou Polar Ocean Park, which boasts 18 animal and 1,000 fish species.

Dolphins dance and sing, and a breeder dances with a leopard shark at the daily shows.

The main characters of Finding Nemo and Finding Dory are represented－clownfish, royal blue tang fish and humpbacks.

If you're lucky, you can spot a shark's tooth at the bottom of aquariums, as they replace their teeth throughout their lives. Looking up in the arch tunnel, you may see a leopard shark resting on its belly since they're nocturnal.

Visitors often confuse languid penguins for statues－until they move.

The Snow Village Room enables guests to experience polar temperatures with the benefit of thick coats distributed at the entrances.

The park's mascots, including a turtle and a polar bear, are rendered as ice sculptures enjoying a birthday party at the beach with fruit and desserts.

It also offers bumper cars and ice slides.

Nearby, Hangzhou Oriental Culture Garden hosts traditional architecture influenced by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.

The 800-year-old Yangqi Temple was rebuilt on its original site and today draws many Buddhists.

Near the entrance, a rockery, inside a fountain that splashes to religious music, serves as the pedestal for a statue of Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy), who pours holy water from a jar－and disappears when the song stops.

The beams and ceiling of roughly 2,700-meter corridor running through the garden is decorated with ornate paintings. Motifs include West Lake scenery and references to Journey to the West, one of China's four most-celebrated literary works.