Mom was not feeling well, so I did today’s outing by myself (well, with the guide and driver). We drove about 2 ½ hours up to the mountains where terraced rice fields have been cultivated by the Yao minority people for hundreds of years. The visibility in town was poor, and it got worse and worse as we drove. The fog turned to drizzle as we approached our destination, the Dragon’s Backbone, and the clouds parted so that it was cloudy above us and cloudy below us, but there was fairly good visibility for what we wanted to see.
It took about an hour of climbing wet, slippery steps past souvenir stands, small restaurants, and the village of Ping An to get to the Seven Stars viewpoint. The village was built on the side of a steep hill using all wooden construction which is unusual for China. The area is naturally forested, and we drove past at least two sawmills which were supporting the building boom there as everyone tries to make the most of the tourists.
The view was indeed spectacular and well worth the trip. The trail signs indicated that there was another viewpoint, and I wanted to go there also. Angela had never been there. In fact, she didn’t know of anyone who had been there. It was clear that she did not want to go, and figuring that she would probably charge me a lot extra if I tried to force the matter, I let it slide. In retrospect, I should have been more persistent—after all, it’s unlikely I’ll ever have another chance.
On the way down, I stopped at one of the shops that was run by a Yao girl, and asked her to show me her hair. The Yao are world record holders for the longest hair, and this girl’s hair reached down to the ground. She also had a separate bunch of hair woven in with the rest that was nearly as long; this had been cut at the age of 16 as a coming of age tradition. Her hair was amazingly black and shiny, supposedly because they only wash it in fermented rice-washing water. So without a mirror, she brushed, and twisted, and coiled it around her head, then finally pinned a cloth on top. That pile of hair must have been quite heavy.
Back to the hotel to meet mom, then we were off to dinner on our own. We didn’t have much time so we went to a rather hole-in-the-wall type noodle shop a block or so away that seemed to be popular with the locals. Indeed, the food was quite good and very reasonably priced.
At 7 PM we met Angela again for the Two Rivers and Four Lakes tour of Guilin by night. It was a bunch of pavilions, pagodas, bridges, and other buildings all lit attractively. Some of the bridges were reminiscent of famous bridges elsewhere in the world (like the Golden Gate). All of this was built in 2002 to make the city more appealing to tourists, and I guess it worked. In some of the pavilions were people performing Chinese Opera or playing traditional instruments. For me, one of the highlights was a demonstration of fishing with Cormorants. These birds have their wings clipped, and they’re kept on leashes most of the time. When they are released into the water, they follow their instinct and catch fish. However, they have a metal ring around their necks that prevents them from swallowing the larger fish. When they come out of the water, the fisherman grabs them by the head and massages their neck until the fish comes out. The birds are then compensated with a small piece of fish that they can eat. I’m not a fan of captive birds in general, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for these birds.
After this boat tour, Angela took us by the Waterfall hotel to see the world’s highest man-made waterfall in its nightly performance. I was a bit under whelmed by the sight of water running down the side of a building accompanied by blaring music.
After that, Angela talked us into getting foot massages. Mom was quite skeptical at first since she’d never had a foot massage before and feared that it would tickle. While it was different from the foot massages I’ve had previously, I did find this quite enjoyable. The best part was that the last 15 minutes were spent on the face, head, neck, and shoulders. I wish they’d done more of that.
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