The Lady by the Sea

During one of our sea-side trips in Qingdao, our tour guide, Ms. Sandy Liu, told us the story of the Lady by the sea. This is what she said.

"One day, when the winds from the four corners of the world were calm and peaceful, a goddess looked down from the heavens to sea how the people lived. She saw that the sea was very vast, and wide, but quiet.

While looking around, she saw, by its lonesome, a small boat floating slowly in the sea, but it seemed empty. The goddess looked closer and she saw the figure of a man who looked as if he was fishing. The goddess was amazed by this and decided to watch the man catch fish for the whole day.

The next morning, the goddess once again saw the fisheman in his small boat, catching some fish. She saw that the man worked very hard. tirelessly throwing his net in the sea and carefully putting the fish in his small boat. This he did everyday. So the goddess decided that she will watch this very interesting man.

The goddess watched the fisherman everyday until she finally decided to talk to the man himself. She went to meet the man when the man went to the shore and they talked and talked like they knew each other like long time friends. Time went by and they did not realize that they were falling in love. They met everytime the man went to the sea and got to know each very well.

When the father of the goddess learned about this affair, he got enraged because her daughter, a goddess should not have any relationship with any human being. So, the father waited and waited until the fisherman was alone. Then when the fisherman was at sea, he rained rocks, lightning, and gigantic tidal waves to sink the man's boat. And then... silence, there was no more boat, just a chaotic debris of stones and wreckage.

The goddess did not know about this so she waited again and again everyday for the fisherman to go to their meeting place by the sea. This she did religiously everyday for so many countless days, her sadness being washed away by her tears. Days turned into years, years turned into decades, decades turned into centuries, but still... no fisherman, no boat... just emptiness.

Until finally, because of the countless years of waiting and waiting and waiting, the goddess turned slowly.... into stone. Her statue stands as a symbol of eternal true love which not even time can break.

She stands there, until today, waiting for her true love, the fisherman, to come back in her arms."

The next time we see this statue of the Lady by the Sea, I hope we remember her story.