On my second day in Vancouver, my plans was to visit Chinatown (the second largest in North America) and, especially, the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden and the neighboring Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park.


As you can (hopefully) tell from the pictures, the garden was simply gorgeous. It was a masterpiece of Yin and Yang, of balance and peaceful beauty. You could walk through the relatively small garden for hours, or just find a place to sit and think, and the rest of the crazy world beyond the garden walls would simply ... drift away.

That night, wanting to continue my exploration of Chinese culture, I attended the Shen Yun Performing Arts at the beautiful Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

I have to say I was extremely disappointed. The classical Chinese dancing was absolutely breathtaking, but the lighting and the digital projection screen animations were pretty awful. They could just crap the projections and hire a lighting designer instead.

On top of that, the performance seemed to be more like a two hour mass recruitment to the Falun Dafa religion than an actual dance performance. (I won't use the religious C word here, but that's what it felt like.)

Will I go see classical Chinese dance again? Without a doubt. Will I go see the Shen Yun Performing Arts again? Um, no.



About the author

Tera Lynn Childs is the award-winning author of the mythology-based Oh. My. Gods. and Goddess Boot Camp, the mermaid tales Forgive My Fins, Fins Are Forever and Just For Fins (July 3, 2012), and a new trilogy about monster-hunting descendants of Medusa, starting with Sweet Venom and Sweet Shadows (September 4, 2012). She has also epublished two fun chick lit romances, Eye Candy and Straight Stalk. Tera lives nowhere in particular and spends her time writing wherever she can find a comfy chair and a steady stream of caffeinated beverages.