In my university, there is a beautiful horseshoe-shaped lake where lotuses bloom in the summer. I cannot remember how many time I sat by its side with a book in hands or walk around it with a dear friend talkig about our most secret feelings. From then on, I developed a deep love for this speical flower. An intellect in China's Song dynasty wrote the following Ode to Lotus, the whole of which I could recite from childhood.
"I have a love for lotus, while growing in mud, it remains unstained; Floating on waving water, it never dances with it. The branchless stem is hollow inside but straight. Her faint fragrance reaches far and she stands erect in water, fair and graceful.” With such a character, lotus is an important cultural symbol in China, apart from its association with buddhism and hinduism.
我大学的校园里有一个美丽的马蹄形湖，每到夏日，湖中开满荷花。不记得多少次，我捧书阅读于荷香中；或有多少次携密友漫步湖畔畅谈心事。从那时起，对荷花有了特殊的珍爱。
中国宋朝有一位学者，曾有过这样的咏颂：“予獨愛蓮之出淤泥而不染，濯清漣而不妖，中通外直，不蔓不枝，香遠益清，亭亭靜植，可遠觀而不可褻玩焉。” 莲花以此品格，成为中国文化中的重要象征。