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While there was no indication that the negative impact Hu caused on the city was about to over, another scandal about car racing came to people’s attention. A wealthy local man raced in the city centre, hitting a 16 year old girl dead, her body and blood on the zebra crossings. Investigation showed that was a drunken driving case also. So as you can imagine, Hangzhou was an easy target this time without a doubt, due to the frequent accidents. Zebra crossings weren’t a safe place to cross the road in Hangzhou, so reported in an published article. It was more of a speeding train to send you to paradise. Hangzhou, the paradise city, eccentrically, has opened the bullet train to paradise, which means hell the other way round.

Hangzhou, you were the one to define the city of paradise a few hundred years ago with your pride that derived from the grand beauty of Westlake. Your fame deriving from the Westlake has actually furnished you as an international tourism city. Westlake – I will have no argument with it as a famous tourism spot with profound history. Hangzhou has won prestige around the world and most importantly, the city of paradise solely because of the Westlake. But the Westlake alone, with all history and culture behind it, doesn’t make up for all the lives lost and the side effect generated when the city was not doing the right things right at critical times. I personally do not identify it was a paradise city and understand it is fully lacking in many ways. I would not know why it gained that name of the paradise city in feudal times and as far as I am concerned and based on what I have seen, it doesn’t deserve that name, nor did any Chinese city.

Damage has been done and nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past, the wrong doings and anything that we have done and have not done. And a serious lesson from this credibility crisis is that the government should realize their role as the party accountable for the whole matter and that driving safety should find foothold in the city. The city was said to be under an overhaul of driving safety problems and a lot of cases caught. I believe a more desired result would be an overhaul of the whole city in terms of education and governmental system. The government never realized its exact role in dealing with this crisis, a crisis arising from the magnitude of serious, deadly and far-reaching accidents and most importantly, from its lack of flexibility in appropriately handling, consoling and appeasing the burning public anger nationwide.

While the public anger was pinned on the provincial government’s poor way in deal with such issues as I have seen and read reams on the internet about netizens condemning and spitting out dissatisfaction, there was one thing still on my mind that I cannot figure out why, that is, Hangzhou’s media was so weak at their role to uncover the truth and push the authority into fast response.

The media’s role was obvious as I can see in my years of career in Guangzhou. I had thought Hangzhou would be more or less the same, if not that much better. But at the end of the day, I was stunned they were not as strong at all. Hangzhou should be more than a collection of overdramatic slogans and propaganda. The only way to regain moral compass of the city, not just for the sake of its mianzi, but for the sake of its own conscience, is to investigate how that happened, and, if necessary, to prosecute those responsible, including whomever in high places.