'Paradise' blessed with immortal love stories

Hangzhou is home to legendary poets and the stunning West Lake. Raymond Zhou reports.

I had not set foot in Hangzhou before I was admitted to a college of the city, which later was merged with the much larger Zhejiang University. I was 15, and college kids were not supposed to date back then. My neighbors joked that I'd bump into a beautiful woman disguised as a young man en route.

For those in the know, the joke was a riff on the age-old legend of the Butterfly Lovers. It's a heartbreaking tale many Chinese proudly call China's Romeo and Juliet, but it unfolds more like Yentl from the outset.