However, the waitress refused to oust the performers. "This is how Jiqing Street has always been. We share the street, thriving and vanishing together," she said.

We finally tasted the duck necks while listening to an old opera song from the classic White Snake tale.

On my second night in Wuhan, we took a boat trip on the Yangtze River.

As we cruised the river, a thick fog fell over it. With the banks blocked from sight, I felt like we were floating on a sea.

I looked up and was taken aback to see some twinkling red objects floating across the sky.

My first thought: UFOs? In fact, they were hot-air balloons named Kongming Lanterns, my tour guide told me.

This also has a colorful story behind it that dates to the Three Kingdom period. When the Chancellor of Shu Kingdom, Zhuge Kongming, the greatest strategist of those times, found himself surrounded by his enemy, he made a lantern and released it in a bid to seek help.

Today, it has become a tradition for local people to write their wishes on the lanterns and release them into the sky, praying their dreams come true.

As the fog cleared, the riverbanks came into plain view. The lights from the pubs and bars dotting the riverside twinkled in the night and young people walking in the riverside park let their lanterns soar into the sky.

Feeling the cool breeze on board the ship, the romantic Wuhan spring night felt like a dreamlike wonderland.

(China Daily April 30, 2009)