 Previous Day |
Guilin |  Next Day |
It’s a tea-riffic day, everyone!
Okay, sorry for the pun, but my nose is still madly in love with the tea smells from this morning. Su Yesthatsright wasn’t going to pick us up until the afternoon, so we went wandering around the Zhengyang Pedestrian Street and found ourselves ushered into the Osmanthus Tea Shop, where Mr. Tao Lee Feng, a soon-to-be art teacher at NYU, introduced us to the most delicious assortment of teas I’ve ever smelled. The jasmine was more fragrant than any I’ve had in a Chinese restaurant back in the states, and there was one called Dragon Terrace tea, which is only grown high in the terraced fields around Guilin. It smelled absolutely euphoric! If you find yourself with a little spare time in Guilin, this no-pressure shop is worth a second look, sniff, and sample!
It just so happened that, on this day, we had another birthday in the group, a big one: 50 whole years! It also just so happened that the birthday girl was looking to buy some original artwork in China for her birthday. It also, also just so happened that Mr. Tao co-curated the Taoyuan Yishu Gallery next door! So, we set down our tea cups and ambled over to peruse some beautiful artwork. There were some really neat paintings that made Chinese characters interact like people and some stunning oil paintings of the karsts. Mr. Tao specialized in traditional brush stroke technique combined with more modern Impressionist style, though he also had some gorgeous oil paintings of his own. This gallery is mostly run on a voluntary basis; profits from the art showcased here go toward funding a local art program, while the artists’ main income stems from other venues. For this reason, the birthday haul, after some extensive banter in Artnerdese, came to three signed, original paintings for a grand sum of $450. What a birthday present!
 |
We finally met up with Su Yesthatsright, who took us to see one of the symbols of Guilin: the Elephant Trunk Hill. This is a big karst with an arch at its front that looks like an elephant trunk. The legend behind it is that one day, long ago, the elephant belonging to the Emperor of Heaven came down to Guilin and fell so in love with the land that it wanted to stay. The Emperor of Heaven said to the elephant “Hey, Elephant, it’s time to come back to Heaven,” but the elephant refused. The Emperor of Heaven, being unable to deal with his anger in a mature and productive manner, had the elephant killed. The spear, lodged in the elephant’s back, turned the poor elephant to stone and itself became a pagoda that can still be seen at the crest of the elephant’s spine. Kind of morbid, huh? Well, we had a nice few moments to look around here before a sudden urgency overtook Su Yesthatsright, and we booked it out of there to our next destination.
 |
The Reed Flute Cave is so named for the reeds that grow outside, which can be made into flutes. Clever! The cave was first discovered by shade-seeking farmers during the Tang Dynasty, who thought this was a dragon’s home! I’m surprised they dared to venture in at all! The whole cave system has been outfitted with colorful lights and poetic names, like “A Bumper Harvest of Melons and Vegetables,” “A Centipede Frightened by a Magic Mirror,” and “A Lion Seeing off Guests,” and the main chamber, called the “Crystal Palace of the Dragon King” even featured a spectacular light and music display. In an effort to conserve energy, the lights and shows are timed, and unfortunately, our timing was off on many of them. So great was Su Yesthatsright’s haste that we could not linger to see them start again. And what was the reason for Su Yesthatsright’s great hurry?
 |
Su Yesthatsright wanted to make sure we had ample time at the South China Pearl Museum. Okay, I thought, a museum could be neat. We were greeted at the door by Mr. Pu, who grinned like it, and announced in his crusty seafarer voice that he had been in the pearl trade for thirty years. He led us from the door, past the room of actual exhibits, into a small back chamber where he pointed out the eight main pearl-exporting countries: Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, and Tahiti. Then, he plucked an oyster from a bucket, drove a screwdriver through its shell, ripped it apart, pulled out a gray pearl, announced it was too young and would be ground up to make cream, then threw the remains of the poor oyster in the garbage. This was more shocking than the silk worms! With a big grin to counter my pallor, Mr. Pu drove us quickly into the showroom. Aha! Another tourist trap… Who could have seen this coming? Su Yesthatsright was already there, ogling the pearls, which explains her great haste through the other places. Instead, I had a mocha from the coffee bar in the corner of the showroom and spent the rest of the time admiring the Year of the Rabbit decorations.
We got into Shanghai late, so there isn’t much to tell about our arrival other than it is not entirely a Black Sneeze City, our fifth guide is named Ellen, and our driver is a crusty old fart who is hard of hearing. It’s pretty neat listening to them banter in Shanghainese Wu, which sounds closer to Japanese than Mandarin. We checked in to the Crowne Plaza. Once we arrived, there was little to do but go to bed, which we did, post haste.
See you tomorrow!
Previous Day |
Guilin | Next Day |