YANGSHUO -- GUILIN

October 22, 2014

October 22nd, Part 2

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Time to get on the move once again... we boarded our coach (along with guide, Ricky, whose wife Lydia was the tour guide for the other Sinormama English speaking bus) to travel back to Guilin. The countryside along the way was really quite interesting. The countryside was dotted with farms amongst the mountainous hilltops. More...



Our first stop was at the South China Pearl Museum. This time, salt water pearls were on display. There was even a pearl "fashion show". I was intrigued by the variety of settings that a single pearl could have. Next we went to Elephant Trunk Hill, a beautiful park named for the arch which looks like an elephant dipping its trunk into the water. The elephant theme continued throughout the park and there were many pretty bridges spanning a small creek that ran through the section that we explored on our own. For the first time, I was introduced to decorative figures made of wire covered in what MIGHT have been a type of silk or possibly satin. The theme of the park was definitely linked to couple "bliss". Even Adam and Eve made their appearance at one end of the park. Near those figures were objects which some thought might be stylized elephants, but because of the theme throughout the park, some thought they might be giant sperm! :) When I had returned to our meeting spot, I saw people dressing up in traditional (and very colourful) Chinese garb to have their pictures taken with cormorants. These birds are used in China to catch fish. A neck collar prevents them from swallowing their catches.
After lunch, some of our group boarded bus 1 with half of the other English speaking group with Robert and Ricky as their guides to the rice terraces. I had an opportunity to join this optional tour since Kelly wasn't feeling well enough to take the 2.5 hour drive there (and back!). I decided instead to explore another part of Guilin on my own. Jimmy and Lydia took the rest of us back to our Guilin hotel (Grand Link Hotel). Since Jimmy is from Guilin, I asked him for advice on how I could spend my day. He suggested a short walk over a bridge to the Seven Star Scenic Area. Thank you for that very good piece of advice Jimmy! I would thoroughly enjoy that afternoon at the park.
I started out by walking down the street the hotel was on to go over the bridge to the park. I knew that the park was somewhere on the left BUT I didn't realize that an entrance would have been immediately after crossing the bridge on my left. Thus, I continued to walk down the street and asked for directions. It took a few tries but finally, someone UNDERSTOOD enough English (or at least the words Seven Star Park) to direct me towards an entrance further down the street. Missing the first entrance is what I call one of my happy "incidents". By walking down that street further, I came across several interesting businesses, one which was greatly enjoyable... a pet store where I was able to play catch with a border collie for at least 5 minutes. The collie brought back the ball every time BUT would shy away from direct contact with me. I never really got to pat her, but you could tell that she did enjoy my tossing the ball for her.
Once at the park, a young lady helped me decipher which admission I needed to select to gain general entrance to the park. Once in the park, I was immediately treated to "eye candy". Red lanterns were being hung (or maybe taken down??) along the path and over a bridge. I opted to take a right hand turn to explore "Camel Hill". No denying that the group of hills did COMPLETELY resemble a camel. I pulled out my sketchbook and calligraphy brush and started to draw a rendition of the hill. Some (Chinese) tourists started looking over my shoulder and when I moved to find a better place to finish my sketch, they followed me to see more... GROUPIES!! The local artist (who'd been sitting at the table) came over to see what my new fan club was interested in. When he saw my Camel Hill sketch, he gave suggestions, not through speech (Chinese only), but by gesturing. I think that because of his suggestions, the sketch turned out better than it might have.
Upon leaving the Camel Hill area, I wandered towards what I thought was the zoo. Unfortunately, I got lost... but not SO unfortunate. A girl working at the climbing structures (which could have been for adults as much as children) took me through the bush (shortcut) to the path I showed her on the map. The moment she dropped me off at the path, three monkeys came right up to me. Turns out a man was throwing them peanuts and they were squabbling over them. I was warned by a second man (in Chinese) not to touch the monkeys (I could tell by the tone of the man's voice). Sure enough, they were wild and the second man shooed them back up the mountain from where they'd come. The (2nd) man then pointed at a sign further up the path which said in English as well as Chinese that wild monkeys can be dangerous (they would likely bite with their BIG teeth!). I know monkeys carry germs which can adversely affect fellow members of the Primate family. Having had my "animal fix" (meeting wild monkeys was SOOOO much better than visiting ones in cages, I skipped the idea of the zoo and followed the path in the opposite direction toward Tianquan Lake and the Leshui Waterfalls. While there, I met a TAME monkey and decided that my souvenir for the day (for a mere 10 yuan or $2) would be a picture with the engaging little fellow who wanted to play "slap hands" and cuddle. I continued along the path to the Yueya Building and the Square of Chinese Glory (and yet another wild monkey). I ventured to the Flower Bridge entrance and saw the "Lotus Rock" before heading for the "Forest of Stone Inscriptions". As you climbed up and down around Yue Ya Hill, it was amazing to see all the Chinese characters inscribed on the "walls" on the mountain and its shoreline caves. I also came across a small outdoor "temple" by another small lake. On Fuxing Hill, I named a rock - Pumpkin Skull Rock (I'd be surprised if you didn't figure out which one it is). There was also a rock climbing wall. A tree that had grown into the mountain announced the existence of the "Guilin Climbing Club". I had done a full circle of one third of the park and as I approached the bridge near Camel Hill, I saw two very different types of horse and buggies. I went back to visit the local artist at Camel Hill because I'd discovered that my original picture of him was terribly out of focus.
I tried to find the Bonsai Garden but instead came across the rock garden. As I cut back towards what I hoped were the bonsai, I came across a family where the two women were playing a form of violin which I later found out was called an Erhu aka Chinese violin. The violin part makes perfect sense. Its two strings were a perfect "D" and "A", the same as a violin's two middle strings. Because of our tour group's constant count out of numbers, I knew one to ten fairly well. The ladies' music sheet was numbers and we soon established that yi (1) was do, er (2) was re, san (3) was mi, si (4) was fa, wu (5) was soh, liu (6) was la, qi (7) was ti. That was pretty straight forward. The hard part was that the bow was lodged BETWEEN the two strings. This meant that you pressed down to play one string and pulled up to play the other. Not so easy when you're used to pressing the bow down for all four violin strings. Still, the experience was SOOO much fun! I could happily have spent even more time at the park but it was getting late and I knew that the bus was taking us to dinner at six. I said goodbye to my new friends and went out the gate I'd entered hours before. On the way back, I once again stopped at the pet store. My border collie friend was locked away in his cage but I was able to meet some exotic cats... Persian I suppose or exotic shorthair or maybe even Himalayan. One had yellow eyes, one gold and one the weirdest shade of green ever. Just before I got to the bridge, there were three men sitting, talking, and drinking tea. One was playing the guitar. I stopped to listen and they indicated that I should sit down and join them. Had I not been in a hurry to get back to the hotel, I certainly would have.
Jimmy and Lydia took the 9 people from our group plus the people from their group who hadn't opted for the optional tour to dinner across a bridge in the opposite direction to the one I'd crossed to get to the scenic area. Just before we left the restaurant, the rice terrace group arrived for dinner. I thanked Jimmy for his good advice that day and it was he who told me proper name for the Chinese violin.